VERSITY  OF  CALIFORN  A   SAN  DIEGO 


3  182202508  1217 


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VV 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA   SAN  DIEGO 


3  182202508  1217 

I 


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Htbrarp  of  tfje  Bommican 

WOODCHESTER 


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p 


ANTOINE    ARNAULD. 

Doctor  of  the  Sorbonue 


r'roiitispieoe    Vcl 


THE  GALLIC  AN  CHURCH. 

DOMINICAN  PRIORY, 

WOQDjpHESTE«f 

HISTORY 


CHURCH    OF,  FRANCE, 


FROM  THE  CONCORDAT  OF  BOLOGNA,  A.D.  1516,  TO 
THE  REVOLUTION. 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION. 


BY  REV.  W.   HENLEY   JERYIS,   M.A., 

PREBENDARY  OF  HEYTESBTJRY ; 
AUTHOR  OF  'THE  STUDENT'S  HISTORY  OF  FRANCE.' 


"  Fluctuat,  nee  mergitur." 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES.— VOL.  I. 

WITH    PORTRAITS. 


LONDON: 
JOHN   MUKBAY,   ALBEMARLE   STEEET. 

1872. 

The  right  of  Translation  is  reterved. 


LONDON 

I'BINTEI)  BY  WILLIAM  CLOWES  AND  SONS,  STAMFORD  STREET, 
AND  CHARING   CROSS. 


PREFACE. 


THE  present  is  an  attempt  to  interest  English  readers 
in  a  field  of  study  which,  for  whatever  reason,  has  not 
received  among  us  the  amount  of  attention  it  deserves. 
Our  literature  is  not  deficient,  indeed,  in  popular  pro- 
ductions designed  to  illustrate  different  periods  and 
phases  of  the  history  of  Christianity  in  France ;  but 
they  are  of  a  sporadic  and  fragmentary  character.  The 
religious  life  of  that  great  province  of  Christendom  has 
not  hitherto  been  treated  in  our  language,  so  far  as  I 
am  aware,  on  any  connected  plan.  Partial  glimpses  of 
it  have  been  offered  us  in  memoirs  of  the  Huguenots  and 
the  Yaudois;  in  sketches  of  the  Calvinistic  Reforma- 
tion ;  in  narratives  of  the  persecutions  which  preceded 
and  followed  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes ;  in 
notices  of  the  adventures  of  Protestant  refugees  in  our 
own  land  and  elsewhere.  These  are  stirring  themes, 
commanding,  in  their  due  measure,  our  earnest  sym- 
pathies. They  are,  however,  but  episodes ;  episodes, 
too,  of  a  somewhat  narrow  and  one-sided  type.  The 
position  of  the  Calvinists  of  France,  with  regard  to 
the  National  Church  from  which  they  separated,  cor- 
responds exactly  with  that  of  the  Lollards,  the  Puritans, 
and  the  more  modern  Nonconforming  sects,  with  refer- 
ence to  the  National  Church  of  England. 

In  like  manner  the  English  mind  has  become  familiar 


IV  PREFACE. 

with  certain  memorable  movements  affecting  the  in- 
ternal history  of  the  Church  in  France,  which  are  asso- 
ciated with  individual  names  of  widespread  celebrity. 
Most  persons  of  average  culture  are  acquainted  with 
the  main  features  of  the  desperate  war  between  Jesuit 
and  Jansenist.  The  studious  of  both  sexes  have  lingered 
over  the  fascinating,  almost  romantic,  annals  of  Port- 
Royal  ;  they  have  admired  the  lofty  independence  of 
St.  Cyran,  the  heroism  of  An toine  Arnauld,  the  steadfast 
endurance  of  the  Abbess  Angelique,  the  splendid  genius 
and  matchless  wit  of  Pascal.  Nor  have  there  been 
wanting,  from  time  to  time,  those  who  have  recognised 
the  attractions  of  Bossuet  and  the  "  Four  Gallican 
Articles ;  "  of  Fenelon  and  the  '  Maximes  des  Saints ; ' 
of  the  oratorical  triumphs  of  Bourdaloue  and  Massillon ; 
of  the  herculean  labours  of  the  Benedictines  of  St. 
Maur. 

Yet  the  eclectic  mode  of  dealing  with  Church  history, 
in  sections  capriciously  detached  from  their  context,  is 
always  attended  with  more  or  less  disadvantage.  It  is 
questionable  whether  the  events  of  any  given  passage 
of  the  Church's  life  can  be  rightly  interpreted  except  in 
connexion  with  the  lessons  and  experience  both  of 
antecedent  and  of  subsequent  times.  All  Christian 
ages  are  intensely  cognate.  The  history  of  any  one 
of  them  demands,  as  its  full  complement  and  ultimate 
elucidation,  the  history  of  all.  If  the  law  of  continuity 
—the  mysterious  concatenation  of  cause  and  effect — be 
a  recognised  principle  in  the  world  of  nature,  much 
more  does  it  reign  supreme  over  the  Spiritual  Economy. 
In  mundane  concerns  its  precise  operation  must  often 
be  matter  of  uncertain  speculation.  Human  institutions 
vary  with  the  "  spirit  of  the  age  ; "  and  it  is  not  always 
easy  to  account  for  the  fluctuations  of  that  extremely 


PREFACE.  v 

volatile  and  fugitive  element  in  the  history  of  nations. 
Political  dynasties  rise  and  fall ;  one  race  succeeds 
another  on  the  proud  pinnacle  of  earthly  domination  ; 
art  and  science,  philosophy  and  literature,  social  refine- 
ment, industrial  enterprise,  military  prestige,  migrate 
from  clime  to  clime,  sink  and  decay,  revive  and  flourish, 
— by  steps  which  in  all  cases  are  difficult  to  analyse, 
and  in  some  are  so  obscure  as  to  elude  investigation. 
But  the  organisation  of  the  Church  is  Divine  and 
changeless.  Its  external  polity,  its  doctrine,  its  laws, 
its  ordinances,  as  they  were  received  in  the  days  e.  g.  of 
Augustine  or  Gregory  the  Great,  are  no  mere  matters 
of  curiosity  for  the  antiquary  or  of  criticism  for  the 
scholar,  but  matters  of  universal  interest,  facts  of  ever- 
enduring  moment,  decisions  for  all  time.  The  threefold 
cord  of  continuity — continuity  (1)  of  government,  (2) 
of  doctrinal  faith,  (3)  of  Sacramental  Grace — may  be 
said  to  constitute  the  "  philosophy  "  of  Christian  history. 
To  this  normal  law  of  its  being,  to  this  vital  inter- 
pretative principle,  all  the  multiform  details  of  the 
Church's  action  may  be  referred.  This  is  the  secret  of 
its  -marvellous  strength  ;  the  sufficient  explanation  of  its 
mightiest  triumphs. 

The  Church  is,  indeed,  subject  to  strange  vicissitudes 
and  startling  anomalies.  Its  life  is  a  many-sided  life, 
full  of  varying  lights  and  shadows,  seasons  of  prosperity 
and  adversity,  alternations  of  apparent  defeat  and  visible 
success,  wide  contrasts  of  individual  character,  ranging 
between  the  extreme  of  weakness  and  inconsistency  and 
the  most  exalted  saintliness.  But,  viewed  comprehen- 
sively, it  is  the  perpetual  outgrowth  of  God's  new  crea- 
tion; the  uninterrupted  development  of  the  Kingdom 
of  grace.  The  history  of  that  life  is  continuous  beyond 
all  other  examples  of  continuity.  The  existing  state  of 


VI  PREFACE.. 

Christendom  is,  in  the  most  literal  sense,  the  product 
of  the  past ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  past  is  the 
most  faithful  interpreter  of  the  manifold  enigmas  and 
perplexities,  as  well  as  of  all  the  hopeful  phenomena, 
which  characterize  the  present. 

By  this  rule  I  have  endeavoured  to  guide  myself  in 
surveying  the  particular  branch  of  the  vast  stream  of 
history  to  which  these  volumes  relate.  Without  pre- 
tending to  furnish  a  complete  or  highly-finished  picture 
of  the  G-allican  Communion  through  all  the  centuries 
of  its  existence,  it  has  been  my  object  to  draw  together 
some  of  the  more  important  links  by  which  the  Primi- 
tive and  the  Mediaeval  are  connected  with  modern 
developments  of  Catholicity ;  to  indicate  those  great 
landmarks  of  ancient  Tradition  to  which  successive 
generations  of  the  Gallican  episcopate  were  wont  to 
recur  in  moments  of  perplexity  and  peril ;  to  elucidate 
the  relationship  between  the  Church  of  Martin  and 
Hilary,  of  Avitus  and  Caesarius,  of  Bernard  and  Ivo, 
and  the  "  Ecclesia  docens "  of  times  bordering  on  our 
own. 

The  treasures  of  French  literature,  in  the  department 
of  ecclesiastical  history,  antiquities,  and  biography,  are 
so  copious,  so  well  digested,  and  so  easily  accessible,  as 
to  leave  the  student  little  or  nothing  to  desire.  The 
chief  difficulty  is  the  "  embarras  de  richesse ; " — the 
question  of  selection.  I  subjoin  a  brief  account  of 
the  principal  sources  from  which  my  materials  have 
been  drawn. 

There  are  two  extensive  collections  of  information 
relating  to  the  history  of  the  Gallican  Church,  which 
have  the  advantage  of  bearing  the  stamp  of  official 
authority.  The  first  is  that  entitled  '  Recueil  des  Actes, 
Titres  et  Memoires,  concernant  les  affaires  du  Clerge  de 


PREFACE.  vii 

France.'  The  second  is  the  '  Collection  des  Proces- 
verbaux  des  Assemble'es  Ge'ne'rales  du  Clerge  de 
France.'  The  former  work  was  undertaken  originally 
in  1645;  and  was  continued,  in  a  series  of  constantly 
enlarged  editions,  down  to  1771,  when  it  was  re- 
published  for  the  last  time.  Its  present  form  and  plan 
of  distribution  were  suggested  to  the  Assembly  of  the 
Clergy  in  the  year  1700  by  a  distinguished  advocate  of 
the  Parliament  of  Paris,  named  Le  Merre.  He  was 
commissioned  to  execute  it,  under  the  superintendence 
of  Cardinal  de  Noailles,  the  Archbishop  of  Narbonne, 
and  the  Bishops  of  Laon  and  Troyes.  The  learned 
Abbe  Dorsanne,  Canon  and  Archdeacon  of  Notre  Dame, 
was  afterwards  associated  with  him  in  the  work. 

It  is  arranged  under  six  divisional  heads.  (I.)  The 
Catholic  faith  and  doctrine  of  the  Church.  (II.) 
The  Ministers  of  the  Church.  (III.)  Divine  Service. 
(IV.)  Ecclesiastical  Jurisdiction.  (V.)  The  benefices 
and  other  property  of  the  Church.  (VI.)  The  privi- 
leges and  immunities  of  the  Church  and  Clergy.  These 
various  sections  comprise  an  immense  mass  of  historical 
documents  and  records,  illustrating  in  extenso  the  details 
of  doctrinal  belief  and  ecclesiastical  discipline  as  re- 
ceived and  administered  in  France.  The  chief  authori- 
ties cited  are  the  great  (Ecumenical  Councils,  the  Canon 
Law,  G-allican  Provincial  Synods,  Royal  Ordonnances, 
and  the  arrets  of  the  Courts  of  Parliament.  It  is, 
however,  by  no  means  a  mere  compilation  of  dry  facts 
and  judicial  decisions.  It  is  interspersed  throughout 
with  learned  notes  and  observations 'by  the  Editors, 
containing  critical  and  explanatory  matter  of  deep 
interest.  In  some  instances  they  have  inserted  entire 
treatises  by  approved  divines ;  among  which  is  that 
by  Hallier,  Bishop  of  Cavaillon,  on  Jurisdiction,  and 


vin  PREFACE. 

Bossuet's  '  Exposition  de  la  Foi  Catholique.'  The 
Xllth  Volume  consists  of  an  elaborate  synopsis  of  the 
tradition  of  the  Church  from  the  earliest  times  on 
the  subject  of  ecclesiastical  Elections,  including  a  view 
of  the  changes  introduced  in  that  respect  by  the  Con- 
cordat of  Bologna. 

The  '  Collection  des  Proces-verbaux  des  Assemblies 
Generales,  Ordinaires,  et  Extraordinaires  du  Clerge  de 
France '  consists,  as  its  title  implies,  of  the  authorized 
series  of  reports  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Clergy  in 
their  representative  Assemblies  held  periodically  by 
royal  licence  in  or  near  Paris.  It  is  a  production  in  the 
highest  degree  honourable  to  the  Church  of  France. 
Though  concerned  to  a  great  extent  with  temporal 
matters,  these  volumes  bear  ample  testimony  to  the 
eminent  merits  and  attainments  of  the  authors  in  every 
branch  of  ecclesiastical  knowledge  and  duty.  They 
extend  from  the  year  1560-61,  when  the  Gallican 
clergy  were  first  convoked  for  the  despatch  of  business 
in  the  new  form  which  was  substituted  for  their  ancient 
canonical  Synods,  down  to  1786,  when  the  Eevolution 
was  almost  at  the  doors.  If,  amid  the  severe  ordeals 
to  which  the  Church  was  subjected  during  that  long 
period,  the  Assemblies  of  the  Clergy  failed  occasionally 
in  consistency  and  dignity,  it  must  be  allowed  that  the 
voluminous  records  of  their  debates  exhibit  a  reach  and 
variety  of  learning,  an  extent  of  patient  research,  and 
an  ardent  zeal  for  the  interests  of  religion,  which  are 
above  all  praise. 

The  masterpieces  of  the  great  G-allican  School  of 
divines  who  flourished  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries,  though  not  strictly  historical  in  form,  are 
replete  with  the  indispensable  materials  of  history,  and 
are  the  most  trustworthy  guides  that  we  possess  in 


PKEFACE.  ix 

their  different  spheres  of  ecclesiastical  erudition.  I 
allude,  of  course,  to  such  works  as  that  of  Archbishop 
De  Marca,  *  De  Concordia  Sacerdotii  et  Imperii ; '  the 
'  G-allia  Christiana '  of  the  Benedictine  Denis  de  Sainte- 
Marthe ;  the  collection  of  ancient  Gallican  Councils  by 
the  Jesuit  Sirmond ;  the  '  Yetus  et  Nova  Ecclesiae 
Disciplina,'  by  Louis  Thomassin,  of  the  Oratory ;  and 
Helyot's  '  Histoire  des  Ordres  Monastiques.'  To  these 
must  be  added  the  l  Collectio  Judiciorum  de  novis 
erroribus,  qui  ab  initio  XII  saeculi  usque  ad  annum 
MDCCXXXV  in  Ecclesia  proscripti  sunt,'  by  Charles 
Duplessis  d'Argentre,  Bishop  of  Tuile  ;  a  work  of  the 
highest  authority,  and  of  immense  value  to  the  historical 
student. 

With  respect  to  the  celebrated  'Defensio  Declara- 
tionis  Cleri  Gallicani '  of  Bossuet,  I  may  here  mention 
that,  since  writing  the  notice  of  it  which  occurs  in  the 
text  of  my  work,  further  investigation  has  served  to 
convince  me  more  thoroughly,  if  possible,  of  the  au- 
thenticity of  that  noble  apology.  Count  De  Maistre 
('  De  1'Eglise  Grallicane/  liv.  ii.  chap,  ix.)  has  dis- 
cussed this  question  with  all  his  characteristic  acuteness 
and  ingenuity,  and  has  exhausted,  I  apprehend,  the 
arguments  by  which  it  is  sought  to  reduce  to  discredit 
a  production  so  fatally  subversive  of  Ultramontane 
pretensions.  But  I  confess  that  his  reasonings  appear 
to  me  to  tell  against  the  conclusion  he  desires  to  esta- 
blish. The  fact  that  both  the  Bishop  and  Louis  XIV. 
betrayed  a  disinclination  to  publish  the  *  Defensio '  to 
the  world,  when  we  consider  the  principles  which  it 
emmciates,  and  the  delicate  relations  existing  at  the 
moment  between  France  and  Rome,  is  surely  no  proof 
that  it  ought  not  to  be  reckoned  among  the  genuine 
works  of  Bossuet,  but  rather  the  reverse.  Upon  the 


x  PREFACE. 

hypothesis  that  it  does  represent  the  real  sentiments  and 
mature  theological  judgment  of  the  great  prelate,  the 
circumstances  of  the  case  are  perfectly  intelligible. 
Bossuet  is  known  to  have  entertained  extreme  con- 
siderateness  for  "  the  tender  ears  of  the  Romans." 
Both  he  and  his  royal  master  naturally  hesitated,  at 
the  close  of  a  lengthened  and  agitating  contest,  to 
commit  themselves  to  any  overt  step  which  might 
excite  a  renewal  of  irritation  at  the  Vatican.  They 
felt,  doubtless,  that  although  it  might  be  necessary 
to  show,  on  a  given  occasion,  that  the  principles  of 
Gallicanism  are  capable  of  being  successfully  vindicated, 
there  was  no  need  to  re-embark  upon  the  sea  of  con- 
troversy at  a  conjuncture  when,  through  the  wise 
forbearance  of  the  reigning  Pontiff,  the  Church  was 
in  the  way  to  regain  the  inestimable  blessings  of  unity 
and  peace. 

With  the  exception  of  the  '  Annals '  of  Charles  Le 
Cointe,  which  extend  no  further  than  the  middle  of  the 
ninth  century,  no  connected  history  of  the  Church  of 
France  appeared  till  the  year  1730,  when  the  Jesuit 
Jacques  Longueval  published  the  first  four  volumes 
of  his  '  Histoire  de  1'Eglise  Gallicane.'  Four  more 
volumes  issued  from  the  press  in  1733  and  1734;  and 
after  the  death  of  Longueval  the  work  was  continued 
by  several  Fathers  of  the  same  Order  in  succession, — 
Fontenay,  Brumoy,  and  Berthier.  But  their  united 
labours  carried  them  only  down  to  the  close  of  the 
reign  of  Henry  II.  To  say  that  these  volumes  dis- 
cover no  traces  of  the  special  theological  proclivities 
of  the  authors  would  not  be  strictly  true.  Several  con- 
troverted questions  of  grave  import  are  so  treated  as 
to  favour  those  views  of  the  monarchical  constitution 
of  the  Church,  and  the  universal  autocratic  jurisdic- 


PREFACE.  xi 

tion  of  the  Roman  See,  which  characterize  the  ultra- 
Catholic  or  Curialistic  school.  But  the  general  execu- 
tion is  so  excellent,  that  the  work  must  always  remain 
a  text-book  for  those  who  seek  a  detailed  acquaintance 
with  the  fortunes  of  the  Church  in  France.  The  Dis- 
sertations are  the  result  of  laborious  original  research, 
abound  with  learning,  and  are  admirable  in  point  of 
style. 

Among  the  authorities  for  the  ecclesiastical  history 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  I  have  derived  great  assist- 
ance from  the  '  Mernoires  chronologiques  et  dogmatiques 
pour  servir  a  1'histoire  ecclesiastique  depuis  1600  jus- 
qu'en  1716,'  which,  though  published  anonymously,  are 
known  to  be  from  the  pen  of  Hyacinthe  Robillard 
d'Avrigny,  a  Jesuit  of  Caen.  The  author  possessed 
many  of  the  highest  qualities  of  a  historian ;  and  his 
power  of  wit  and  refined  satire  imparts  to  his  pages 
an  interest  which  never  flags.  The  work,  however,  is 
essentially  controversial.  It  enters  at  length  into  the 
details  of  the  manifold  disputes  in  which  the  Order  of 
Loyola  played  so  conspicuous  a  part,  and  exhibits  a 
spirited  picture  of  the  whole  course  of  the  Jansenistic 
conflict.  On  the  other  hand,  D'Avrigny  is  defective 
and  meagre  on  topics  relating  to  the  interior  and 
practical  life  of  the  Church.  He  has  but  a  scanty 
notice  of  St.  Fran$ois  de  Sales.  He  treats  the  illustrious 
school  of  Port-Royal  almost  exclusively  in  its  polemical 
aspect.  He  is  silent  as  to  the  Apostolical  character 
and  marvellous  labours  of  St.  Yincent  de  Paul. 

The  'Abrege  de  1'histoire  eccle'siastique,'  by  the 
Abbe  Bonaventure  Racine,  is  framed  on  a  totally 
different  plan.  All  this  writer's  sympathies  are  with 
the  Jansenists.  He  wrote  under  the  special  patronage 
of  Caylus,  Bishop  of  Auxerre,  one  of  the  last  and  most 


Xii  PREFACE. 

zealous  of  the  "  Appellant "  prelates.  The  earlier  part 
of  Racine's  work  is  marked  by  a  tone  of  moderation, 
and  is  extremely  valuable ;  but  the  later  volumes  are 
deeply  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  sectarianism,  and  may 
be  described  as  an  elaborate  apology  for  Jansenism. 

The  great  controversy  on  the  doctrines  of  Grace, 
which  overshadowed  with  its  sinister  influence  the 
whole  of  the  seventeenth  century  and  more  than  half 
of  the  eighteenth,  was  an  infinitely  prolific  source  of 
ecclesiastical  literature.  I  have  carefully  consulted  the 
chief  works  of  acknowledged  weight  and  merit  on  this 
subject,  whether  proceeding  from  the  Augustinian  or 
the  Molinist  camp, — from  champions  or  opponents  of 
the  Constitution  "  Unigenitus."  These  will  be  found 
duly  quoted  in  the  foot-notes.  I  have,  moreover,  pro- 
fited by  the  opportunity  of  examining  a  curious  and 
probably  unique  collection  of  publications  bearing  on 
this  question,  which  formerly  belonged  to  a  well-known 
Appellant  ecclesiastic  in  one  of  the  southern  French 
dioceses,  and  is  now  deposited  in  the  public  library  at 
Bayonne. 

The  series  of  MSS.  in  the  British  Museum  known  as 
the  "  Gualterio  Papers "  contains  a  mass  of  corre- 
spondence between  persons  who  exercised  more  or  less 
influence  on  the  affairs  of  the  Church  during  the  critical 
period  from  1696  to  1725.  Cardinal  G-ualterio  was 
Vice-legate  of  Avignon,  and  was  sent  as  Nuncio  to 
Paris  by  Pope  Innocent  XII.  in  February,  1700.  He 
rose  high  in  the  favour  of  Louis  XIY.,  who  presented 
him  to  the  Abbey  of  St.  Remi  at  Reims.  His  learning 
and  literary  tastes  brought  him  into  confidential  rela- 
tions with  the  leading  theologians  and  savans  of  France, 
by  whom  he  was  held  in  singular  esteem.  The  Cardinal 
formed  during  his  residence  in  France  an  extensive 


PREFACE.  Xlil 

and  valuable  library,  which  unfortunately  perished  at 
sea  on  the  passage  from  Marseilles  to  Italy  ;  but  at  his 
death,  in  1728,  he  left  behind  him  a  second  collection, 
larger  and  more  precious  than  the  first.  The  Gualterio 
Papers  throw  much  light  upon  the  complications  which 
arose  out  of  the  bull  Unigenitus ;  the  Cardinal  having 
been  constantly  in  communication  with  Cardinals  De 
Noailles,  Fleury,  D'Estre'es,  De  Bouillon,  De  Bissy,  and 
Dubois,  as  also  with  the  Jesuit  Lafiteau,  the  well-known 
agent  of  the  French  government  at  Rome. 

I  am  bound  to  acknowledge  gratefully  my  obligations 
to  the  Abbe  Guette'e,  whose  able  work,  'Histoire  de 
1'Eglise  de  France,  composee  sur  les  documents  origi- 
naux  et  authentiques,'  has  been  a  constant  companion 
of  my  labours.  The  name  of  M.  Guettee  is  one  of 
well-established  reputation  in  the  ecclesiastical  world, 
and  it  would  be  presumptuous  in  me  to  speak  of  him  in 
the  language  of  eulogy.  Possibly  it  may  not  be  known 
to  some  readers  that  certain  sentiments  expressed  by 
this  author  on  vexed  questions  of  Church  government 
and  discipline  were  visited,  twenty  years  ago,  with 
formal  censure  by  the  See  of  Rome.  His  *  History '  was 
placed  upon  the  Index  of  prohibited  books  by  a  decree 
of  the  Congregation  in  January,  1852.  The  Abbe 
employed  every  available  means  to  obtain  some  ex- 
planation of  this  sentence  from  official  quarters,  but 
without  success.  It  is  clear,  however,  from  the  remarks 
prefixed  to  his  seventh  and  eighth  volumes,  that  the 
opinions  which,  in  the  judgment  of  the  Roman  autho- 
rities, render  the  work  so  fraught  with  danger  to  the 
welfare  of  the  faithful,  may  be  classed  under  three 
heads — the  primitive  organisation  of  the  Church;  Gal- 
licanism  and  Ultramontanism ;  and  the  tribunal  of  the 
Inquisition.  When  we  recollect  that  even  Cardinal 


XIV  PREFACE. 

Bellarmine  incurred  in  his  day  a  similar  rebuke,  on  the 
ground  of  certain  qualifying  considerations  advanced 
in  one  of  his  treatises  as  to  the  universal  and  absolute 
supremacy  of  the  Pope,  we  shall  perhaps  cease  to 
wonder  at  the  stigma  inflicted,  without  cause  as- 
signed, upon  the  Abbe  G-uette'e.  No  man  is  better 
able  than  this  accomplished  divine  to  undertake  his 
own  defence,  were  the  opportunity  offered  him  of 
meeting  specific  charges  of  heterodoxy.  As  it  is,  he 
has  felt  constrained  to  take  the  serious  and  (I  venture 
to  think)  questionable  step  of  separating  from  the 
Church  of  his  baptism,  and  has  joined  the  Orthodox 
Communion  of  the  East. 

The  paramount  demand  made  by  the  educated  in- 
tellect of  our  day  upon  those  who  take  in  hand  to 
interpret  the  records  of  the  past  is — truth.  The  world 
is  not  inclined  to  accept  with  credulous  faith  narratives 
of  which  the  too-perceptible  purpose  is  to  ventilate  a 
favourite  theory  or  to  prove  a  foregone  conclusion; 
nor  will  it  longer  tolerate  those  who  would  substitute 
the  visions  of  imagination  or  conjecture  for  the  stern 
realities  of  history.  My  readers  will  give  me  credit, 
I  trust,  for  having  aspired  to  ascertain  the  truth ;  but  I 
dare  not  flatter  myself  that  in  all  cases  I  have  attained 
that  end.  In  a  work  like  the  present,  concerned  so 
largely  with  the  history  of  thought  and  opinion,  with 
the  prejudices  and  intrigues  of  contending  parties,  with 
transactions  in  which  the  inevitable  alloy  of  human 
frailty  has  been  systematically  overlaid  with  a  varnish 
of  affected  probity  and  virtue,  much  must  be  left,  after 
all,  to  the  independent  judgment  of  the  candid  and 
competent  reader. 

Writers  of  history  usually  seek  to  inspire  the  public 
with  a  belief  in  their  impartiality  ;  and  I  am  fully  alive 


PREFACE.  XV 

to  the  value  of  that  enviable  distinction.  It  is  to  be 
observed,  however,  that  impartiality  does  not  mean 
indifference.  The  ecclesiastical  inquirer  is  not  bound 
to  take  up  a  position  as  it  were  ab  extra,  as  if  he  had 
no  personal  concern  or  interest  in  the  events  which 
pass  under  his  review.  There  is  a  pseudo-impartiality, 
the  working  of  which  is  scarcely  less  detrimental  to 
the  cause  of  truth,  especially  of  religious  truth,  than  the 
most  reckless  spirit  of  partisanship.  The  style  of 
Gibbon,  for  example,  wears  pre-eminently  a  calm,  dis- 
passionate, disinterested  air ;  yet  who  will  contend  that 
Gibbon  is  in  reality  an  impartial  investigator  of  matters 
which  concern  the  Christian  Church  ?  He  affects  on 
such  topics  an  attitude  of  perfect  equilibrium,  without 
prepossession  in  any  direction ;  but  is  he  on  that 
account  a  more  efficient  guide?  Is  he  the  better 
qualified,  by  such  cynical  professions,  to  form  a  satis- 
factory estimate  of  the  questions  e.g.  which  were  de- 
bated and  determined  at  Chalcedon  ?  of  the  theory  of 
ecclesiastical  Jurisdiction?  of  the  acts  of  the  Council 
of  Florence?* 

To  be  impartial,  it  is  not  requisite,  either  for  writers 
or  for  readers,  that  they  should  have  no  fixed  principles, 
or  that,  having  them,  they  should  seek  to  conceal  the 
fact.  The  essential  point  is,  that  we  should  not  suffer 
our  personal  predilections  to  mislead  our  critical  judg- 
ment, or  to  interfere  with  the  supreme  claims  of 
historical  truth.  It  should  be  our  aim  to  appreciate 
the  character  of  others,  to  enter  into  their  views  and 
feelings,  to  make  all  due  allowance  for  their  difficulties, 
to  interpret  their  conduct  in  the  most  favourable  light 


*  See  Gibbon,  Roman  Empire,  vol.  ii.  pp.  202-4;  vol.  vi.  p.  28;  vol.  viii.  p.  100 
(Dr.  Smith's  edition,  1854). 


XVI  PREFACE. 

possible.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  no  such  considera- 
tions will  justify  us  in  abdicating  our  own  intellectual 
independence,  or  in  doing  violence  to  earnest  and  con- 
scientiously-formed conviction. 

Under  such  impressions  I  commend  to  the  indulgence 
of  the  literary  world  a  work  upon  which  I  have  been 
engaged  for  several  years  past  at  no  inconsiderable  cost 
of  thought  and  labour.  None  of  my  readers  can  be  more 
sensible  than  myself  of  its  many  defects,  and  of  the 
disproportion  which  it  bears  to  the  vastness  of  the  sub- 
ject which  it  attempts  to  illustrate.  I  am  not  without 
hope,  however,  that  it  may  be  found  to  throw  addi- 
tional light,  in  some  instances,  upon  what  has  hitherto 
been  more  or  less  a  terra  incognita  in  the  history  of 
the  Church ;  and  others  may  perhaps  be  stimulated 
to  pursue  the  investigation  of  certain  questions  of 
collateral  interest,  which  I  have  been  compelled  to 
dismiss  with  a  brief  and  imperfect  analysis. 

To  the  kind  friends  and  relatives  to  whom  I  am  so 
materially  indebted  for  advice,  criticism,  and  sympathy, 
I  offer  my  most  cordial  and  grateful  acknowledgments. 


28,  HOLLAND  PABK,  W. 

March  22,  1872. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  I. 


INTRODUCTION. 


Nationalism  in  Religion 1 

In  what  sense  and  to  what  extent  legitimate          2 

General  character  of  Gallicanism 3 

Early  relations  of  Gallican  Church  with  Rome       4,5 

Appeals  to  Rome.     S.  Leo  and  S.  Hilary       6-8 

Patriarchal  jurisdiction  of  the  Pope 9 

The 'Liber  Diurnus'         10 

Ecclesiastical  "Liberty" 11-12 

Perversion  of  Gallican  Liberty         13,14 

Ancient  and  Modern  Gallicanism 15 

Freedom  of  Ecclesiastical  Election 16 

Gallican  Councils  on  Elections 17,18 

Changes  under  the  Feudal  System 19 

Question  of  Investiture      ...     20,21 

Elections  by  Cathedral  Chapters      ..      ..      ..      ..  22 

Pragmatic  Sanction  of  Saint  Louis 23- 

Jurisdiction  of  Provincial  and  National  Councils 24-27 

Interposition  of  the  Papacy      28 

Administration  of  Charlemagne       29,30 

Development  of  Papal  Power 31 

Extension  of  Appellate  Jurisdiction 32 

Hincmar  of  Reims      33 

The  Forged  Decretals        35 

Popes  and  Councils  in  the  ninth  century         36-39 

Deposition  of  Arnulf  of  Reims 40,41 

System  of  Papal  Legates 44-47 

Disuse  of  Provincial  Councils 46 

Restrictions  imposed  on  Legates       48 

Institution  of  "Assemble  General  e  du  Clerge"" 49 

Ancient  and  Modern  Synods  compared 50,51 

Agens-gene'raux  du  Clerge 52 

Theory  of  Ecclesiastical  Jurisdiction        53 

Relations  of  Temporal  and  Spiritual  Power 54-56 

VOL.  I.  b 


xviii  CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  I. 


PAGE 


Innocent  III.  on  PapalJurisdiction     

Boniface  VIII.  and  Philip  the  Fair      58-66 

The  Bull  "UnamSanctam"        JjT 

Violence  of  Philip.     Death  of  Boniface       9~<0 

The  Ecclesiastical  Courts      7070 

Resistance  to  EcclesiasticalJudges      7^,73 

Aggressions  of  the  Temporal  Power     

The  "  Appel  comme  d'abus  "        

'"  Droit  de  Regale "        77 

The  Popes  of  Avignon 79 

The  Great  Schism  of  the  West 80 

Eesults  of  the  Schism 

Efforts  of  the  University  of  Paris         ..      ....      ..-     82-84 

France  demands  a  General  Council      85 

Measures  during  "  Soustraction  d'obedience  "      

Council  of  Pisa       ••      ••  87 

Gerson  on  General  Councils 

Council  of  Constance.    The  Decrees 90,91 

Ultramontane  objections  considered 92-94 

Council  of  Basle 95 

National  Council  of  Bourges         97 

Pragmatic  Sanction  of  Bourges 

Rome  opposes  it 100 

The  Parliaments  defend  it 101 

Pseudo-Council  of  Pisa 103 

The  Fifth  Lateran  Council 104 

The  Concordat  of  Bologna 105 

Resistance  to  the  Concordat 107 

The  Concordat  registered  in  Parliament      109 

Practical  fruits  of  the  Concordat  ..                             110-112 


CHAPTER  I. 

Commencement  of  the  Reformation      

Ecclesiastical  Abuses 

Resistance  to  Doctrinal  Changes 

Lutheranism  condemned  by  the  Sorbonne 

Censure  of  Erasmus      

Provincial  Council  of  Sens ..      ..    118,119 

Project  of  a  General  Council 120,121 

Opening  of  the  Council  of  Trent 122 

Henry  II.  opposes  the  Council 124 

Inconsistent  policy  of  Henry  II 125 

Suspension  of  the  Council      126 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  I.  Xix 
CHAPTER    II. 

I'AGE 

Strength  of  Protestantism  in  France 127 

Character  of  the  Reforming  Movement        ..      ..      .'.'      128 

The  Party  Leaders 129 

The  Cardinal  of  Lorraine      130 

Persecution  of  the  Huguenots       131 

Attempt  to  establish  the  Inquisition ..  132 

Trials  for  Heresy 133 

Conspiracy  of  Am boise  ..      ..      134- 

Catherine  de  Medicis      135 

The  "  Tiers-parti."     The  Chancellor  De  1'Hopital      136 

The  States-General  of  Orleans      137 

Resumption  of  the  Council  of  Trent 138 

Queen  Catherine's  Letter  to  Pope  Pius  IV 139 

The  Colloquy  of  Poissy         140-145 

The  "Triumvirate."    Outbreak  of  Civil  War    ..      ..      146 

French  Embassy  to  the  Council  of  Trent 147 

The  Gallican  Episcopate  at  Trent        ...      ..      151 

Views  of  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine        152 

Debates  on  Episcopal  Jurisdiction       153-155 

Debate  on  Ecclesiastical  Residence      156 

The  French  "  Articles  of  Reformation  "      157 

"  Reformation  of  Secular  Princes  "       159-160 

Resentment  of  the  Court  of  France     161 

French  Ambassadors  leave  Trent        162 

Measures  against  Bishops  suspected  of  Heresy 163 

Termination  of  the  Council 165 

Objections  to  its  reception  in  France 167 

Opinion  of  Charles  Dumoulin       168 

French  Synods  for  Reception  of  the  Council       169 

Its  Publication  refused  by  French  Government 170 

CHAPTER    III. 

The  "Catholic  League  "or  "Holy  Union" 172 

Designs  of  the  League 173-175 

Extortions  of  the  Crown  from  the  Church 176 

Arguments  of  the  League 177 

The  Clergy  and  the  League 178 

Sixtus  V.  and  Henry  of  Navarre 180 

Clerical  Denunciations  of  Henry  III 182 

Outbreak  of  Insurrection.     The  Barricades 184 

Assassination  of  the  Guises 185 

The  Sorbonne  and  the  League      186 

Anomalous  character  of  the  League     187-188 

b  2 


XX  CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  I. 

PAGE 

Claude  de  Saintes 189 

Ge'ne'brard  Archbishop  of  Aix      190-191 

Decline  of  the  League 

Conference  of  Suresnes 

The"SatyreMenippe'e"       

Pierre  Pithou  on  the  Gallican  Liberties       

Results  of  the  League 197,198 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Conversion  of  Henry  IV 199 

Difficulties  of  Henry.     Boucher's  Sermons..      200,201 

Henry  applies  to  Eome  for  Absolution        

Ceremony  of  Henry's  Absolution 203 

Factious  conduct  of  the  Huguenots     204 

The  Edict  of  Nantes      205 

Policy  of  Henry  towards  the  Huguenots 207-208 

Revival  of  Catholicism 209 

Successful  Administration  of  Henry 210,211 


CHAPTER  V. 

Results  of  the  "Wars  of  Religion" 212 

Corruptions  of  the  Church 213 

Dilapidated  Churches.     Efforts  of  Restoration 215 

Cardinal  Du  Perron       216 

Du  Perron  and  Duplessis-Mornay        218-220 

Effects  of  the  Conference.    Isaac  Casaubon        221,222 

French  Cardinals 224-226 

Recall  of  the  Jesuits  to  France 227-232 

Father  Cotton        233 

Jesuit  Establishments.    La  Fleche     235 

Francois  de  Sales 236-240 

The  Reformed  Carmelites  in  France 241 

Opposition  to  De  Be"rulle       243 

Madame  Acarie      245 

Madame  de  Chantal.    The  Visitandines 247,248 

Cardinal  De  Berulle      249 

Foundation  of  the  French  Oratory       250,251 

Labours  of  the  Oratorians 254-256 

CHAPTER    VI. 

Assassination  of  Henry  IV 257 

Decree  of  the  Faculty  of  Theology       258 

Resentment  against  the  Jesuits 259-260 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  I.  xxi 

PACK 

James  I.  and  Cardinal  Bellarmine        261 

Erastianism 262 

Eelations  between  Church  and  State 263-264 

Predominance  of  the  Jesuits 265 

Edmond  Kicher     266-269 

The  University  and  the  Jesuits 270-272 

Eicher's  Treatise 273 

Submission  of  Richer 274 

Condemnation  of  Suarez       275 

Intrigues  of  the  Great  Nobles       276 

Meeting  of  the  States-General 277-281 

The"Loi  fondamentale"      282 

Summary  of  proceedings       283 

Speech  of  Richelieu        ..      ..  284-285 

The  Episcopal  Manifesto       286 

Antonio  De  Dominis                                                                           .  287-289 


CHAPTER   VII. 

Louis  and  the  States  of  Be'arn     291 

Reconciliation  of  Louis  and  the  Queen  Mother ..      ..  292 

Louis  XIII.  in  Beam 293 

Insurrection  of  the  Huguenots      295-296 

Defeat  of  Louis  before  Montauban       297 

Conversion  of  Marshal  Lesdiguieres 298 

Submission  of  the  Huguenots      299 

Richelieu  Prime  Minister      300-301 

Peace  with  the  Huguenots 302 

Policy  of  Richelieu        303-304 

Intrigues  in  the  Assembly  of  Clergy 305-306 

The  Parliament  and  the  Clergy 307-308 

The  Parliament  and  the  Jesuits 309-310 

Censure  of  Santarelli     311 

Siege  of  La  Rochelle      312-314 

De  B4rulle  and  Richelieu                                                                   .  315-316 


CHAPTEE  VIII. 

Vincent  de  Paul 317-322 

Retreats  conducted  by  Vincent  de  Paul      323-324 

"Tuesday  Conferences  "of  St.  Lazare         325-326 

Filles  de  la  Charit^        327-328 

Compagm'e  des  Dames  de  Charite        329-330 

Olier  and  the  Seminary  of  S.  Sulpice 331-332 


xxii  CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  I. 

CHAPTER   IX. 

FACE 

Revival  of  the  Benedictine  Rx;le 333-334 

Congregation  of  St.  Maur      335-338 

Port-Royal  des  Champs        339-340 

The  Abbess  Aug^lique 341-342 

Port-Royal  de  Paris       343-344 

Maison  du  Saint-Sacre"uient 345-346 

CHAPTER   X. 

Ecclesiastical  Policy  of  Richelieu        347 

His  differences  with  the  Court  of  Rome      ,.  348 

Outcry  for  a  Galilean  Synod 349 

"  Preuves  des  liberte"s  de  1'Eglise  Gallicane  "       350 

"OptatusGallus" 351 

De  Marca  "  De  Concordia  Sacerdotii  et  Imperil "       352 

The"DiablesdeLoudun" ..  353,354 

Urbain  Grandier 355-356 

Affair  of  the  Marriage  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans 357-358 

Gallican  Clergy  on  Royal  Marriages 359-360 

Mission  of  Bishop  Fenouillet  to  Rome 361-362 

Unjust  Taxation  of  the  Clergy 363 

Richelieu  and  the  Abbe  de  St.  Cyran 364 

The  Jesuits  and  the  Bishop  of  Chalcedon 365-366 

St.  Cyran — '  Petrus  Aurelius '      367 

St.  Cyran  Imprisoned  at  Vincennes 374 

Death  of  Cardinal  Richelieu 375 

Death  of  the  Abbe  de  St.  Cyran 376 

CHAPTER   XL 

Commencement  of  the  Jansenistic  Controversy         377 

Augustine  on  Grace  and  Free-will       378-380 

Reaction  from  Augustinianism     331 

Doctrine  of  the  Council  of  Trent 382 

System  of  Molina 383-384 

The  Congregation  "  de  Auxiliis "        335 

Publication  of  the  '  Augustinus '  of  Jansenius    ..      ..      ..      ..  386 

TheBull"lneminenti"      \  337 

Antoine  Arnauld  defends  Jansenius 339 

Arnauld  '  De  la  frequente  Communion '      390-394 

Intrigues  against  Antoine  Arnauld      t  395-396 

Letter  of  Bishops  to  Urban  VIII.  in  favour  of  Arnauld  397 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  I.  xxiii 

PAGE 

Proselytes  to  Jansenism        399-400 

Kivalry  of  Jansenists  and  Molinists 401 

The  "  Five  Propositions "      403 

The  Bishops  appeal  to  the  Pope 405-406 

The  Propositions  examined  at  Eome 407-408 

Arguments  of  the  Jansenist  Deputies 409 

Grounds  of  the  Decision       ..  411 


CHAPTER  XII. 

The  Bull  "  Cum  occasione  " 412-414 

Reception  of  the  Bull  in  France 415 

Policy  of  Cardinal  Mazarin ..  416 

Evasive  system  of  the  Jansenists 417-418 

Report  of  the  Assembly  of  Clergy       419 

Persecution  of  Port-Royal 420 

Affair  of  the  Due  de  Liancour      421-422 

Arnauld's  '  Letters  to  a  Duke  and  Peer '      423 

Arnauld  condemned  by  the  Sorbomie 424-425 

Deprivation  of  Arnauld        426-427 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Pascal's  '  Provincial  Letters  '        428-434 

Miracle  of  the  "Sainte  E"pine" 435-438 

Proceedings  against  the  Casuists 439 

Father  Pirot's  '  Apology'      440 

Censure  of  the  '  Provincial  Letters '     .• 441-442 

Pascal  on  le  "Droit"etle  "Fait"       '443 

Death  of  Pascal  and  of  his  sister  Jacqueline       .,      444 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

The  Clergy  and  the  Formulary 445-446 

Antoine  Arnauld  and  Pavilion  Bishop  of  Alet 447 

Theory  of  Papal  Infallibility        448-449 

Death  of  Cardinal  Mazarin 450 

Religious  Policy  of  Louis  XFV 451 

Persecution  of  the  two  Convents  of  Port-Royal 452 

The  Formulary  enforced  at  Port-Royal       453-454 

Episcopal  opposition  to  the  Formulary       455 

Dispute  between  Louis  XIV.  and  Rome.    The  Six  Articles     ..      ..  456 

Negotiation  for  Peace 457 

The  Bishop  of  Comminges  and  Father  Ferrier 458 

Abortive  issue  of  the  Conferences                460 


xxiv  CONTENTS  OP  VOLUME  I. 

¥  PAGE 

The  Formulary  enforced  by  Royal  Edict 461 

Archbishop  Ptfrtffixe  at  Port-Hoyal      462,464 

The  Bull  "  Regiininis  Apostolic! "       -465 

Prosecution  of  the  Four  Bishops 466 

Accession  of  Pope  Clement  IX 467 

Letter  to  the  Pope  in  defence  of  the  Four  Bishops     468 

Letter  of  the  Four  Bishops  to  the  Gallican  Episcopate      469 

Progress  of  the  Negotiation  for  restoring  Peace 470 

Letter  of  the  Four  Bishops  to  Clement  IX 471 

The  "Peace  of  Clement  IX."        '472-476 


THE    GALLICAN    CHURCH. 


INTRODUCTION. 

I. 

RELIGIOUS  NATIONALITY — religion  in  a  shape  peculiar  to  one 
section  of  the  human  family,  or  one  territorial  circumscrip- 
tion of  the  globe — is,  primd  facie,  an  idea  foreign  to  the  genius 
of  Christianity.  Nations,  viewed  in  the  light  of  the  new  federal 
relations  established  by  the  Gospel,  are  not  independent,  but 
interdependent.  Judaism  was  a  national  religion,  localized, 
isolated,  geographically  limited  ;  but  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  is 
world-wide.  The  Church  Catholic  takes  no  note  of  any  distinc- 
tions of  physical  race,  except  to  obliterate  and  extinguish  them. 
That  vast  "  net  which  is  cast  into  the  sea  "  of  the  moral  creation, 
and  "gathered  of  every  kind," — that  common  home  of  redeemed 
humanity,  "  where  there  is  neither  Greek  nor  Jew,  circumcision 
nor  uncircumcision,  barbarian,  Scythian,  bond  nor  free" — is 
essentially  the  same  to  all  whom  it  embraces,  however  widely 
they  may  differ  as  to  primitive  descent  or  social  organization. 
They  who  "  by  one  Spirit  are  all  baptized  into  one  body,  and 
have  been  all  made  to  drink  into  one  Spirit,"  are  strictly  "  fellow 
citizens  "  in  the  Christian  sense  of  the  word,  whether  their  lot  be 
cast  in  the  temperate  or  the  torrid  zone — whether  they  be  classi- 
fied, after  the  order  of  nature,  as  Celtic  or  Teutonic,  Aryan  or 
Aramean.  The  curse  of  Babel  is  revoked  by  the  Pentecostal 
benediction  ;  and  "  the  whole  earth,"  in  so  far  as  it  is  Christian, 
is  again  "  of  one  language  and  of  one  speech." 

At  the  same  time  it  is  clear  that  Christianity,  while  un- 
changeable in  essence,  is  to  a  certain  extent  plastic  in  applica- 
tion. It  admits  of  some  variety  in  outward  development  and 
administrative  detail.  It  is  not  uninfluenced  by  the  innate 
qualities  of  the  soil  in  which  it  grows ;  it  adapts  itself  to  the 
material  with  which  it  has  to  deal.  The  Church  Catholic, 
wherever  it  has  fixed  its  sojourn  among  men,  has  been  coloured 

VOL.  I.  B 


THE  GALLIC  AN  CHURCH.  INTROD. 

more  or  less  by  the  moral  atmosphere  and  other  exceptional  in- 
fluences with  which  it  has  been  brought  into  contact.  Such 
distinctions  have  arisen  in  all  lands,  and  in  all  ages,  from  the 
very  facts  of  ethnology — from  the  diversities  of  natural  origin. 

In  this  sense,  then,  a  certain  element  of  nationality  is  not 
only  admissible  in  religion,  but  inevitable;  and  the  existence 
of  "  Gallicanism,"  properly  so  called,  is  no  surprising  pheno- 
menon. Gallicanisni  is  (or,  to  speak  more  accurately,  was)  the 
Christianity  of  the  French  people.  It  may  be  expected,  then, 
a  priori,  to  exhibit  traits  corresponding  with  the  idiosyncracy  of 
that  noble  race ;  features  reflecting  and  illustrating  its  cha- 
racteristic self-reliance,  its  love  of  liberty,  its  impatience  of 
foreign  domination,  its  reverence  for  traditional  authority  and 
time-honoured  usage. 

Thus  the  question  of  Nationalism  in  religion  resolves  itself  into 
one  of  degree  and  detail.  The  principle  is  legitimate  within 
certain  limits  ;  but  what  are  those  limits? 

Manifestly  they  must  be  so  defined  as  to  leave  intact  the 
field  of  essential  theological  doctrine.  Within  that  sacred  area 
there  is  no  scope  for  Nationalism.  Peculiarities  which  touch 
the  foundations  of  the  Faith — the  Catholic  tradition  of  all  ages 
— the  "  quod  semper,  quod  ubique,  quod  ab  omnibus," — such 
peculiarities  are  well-nigh  synonymous  with  heresies.  To  say 
that  the  tenets  known  as  "  Gallican"  are  not  of  this  complexion 
may  seem  almost  superfluous ;  yet  such  is  the  predominant  tone 
of  thought  and  feeling  in  the  Koman  Communion  of  our  day, 
that  the  statement  is  not  altogether  uncalled  for.  It  is  notorious 
that  the  profession  of  Gallican  opinions  is  now,  and  has  long 
been,  treated  in  certain  quarters  as  if  it  were  all  but  equivalent 
to  a  denial  of  the  Faith.  What,  however,  is  the  real  character 
of  those  opinions  ?  They  belong  to  the  domain  of  ecclesiastical 
polity  ;  relating  chiefly  to  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  authority 
vested  in  the  Apostolic  See,  and  in  the  individual  person  of  its 
Bishop.  They  may  be  said,  also,  to  comprehend  many  collateral 
issues,  radiating  from  this  central  point — issues  affecting  juris- 
prudence, legislation,  discipline ;  the  status  and  rights  of  the 
Episcopal  Order  in  general ;  the  legitimate  terms  of  alliance 
between  a  National  Church  and  a  Christian  State. 

Now  these  are  questions,  doubtless,  of  considerable  magni- 
tude ;  but  they  are  not  of  fundamental  or  indispensable  moment. 


INTKOD. 


GENERAL  CHARACTER  OF  GALLICANISM. 


They  are  not  questions  de  fide*  The  systematic  exaggeration 
of  their  importance  by  the  extreme  partisans  of  Borne  is  one  of 
the  most  unfortunate  features  of  modern  controversy.  It  is 
difficult  to  see  how  the  cause  of  religion  can  be  served  by  in- 
sisting on  the  dogma  of  Papal  absolutism  as  if  it  were  the 
corner-stone  of  the  whole  Christian  fabric — the  "  articulus  stantis 
vel  cadentis  Ecclesise."  Such  a  theory  clashes  with  incontestable 
facts.  If  this  be  an  article  of  necessary  faith,  how  is  it  that  it 
has  never  been  imposed  upon  the  conscience  of  Christendom  by 
the  authority  of  any  one  undisputed  (Ecumenical  Council  ?  t  How 
is  it  that  no  such  definition  is  to  be  found  among  the  decrees  of 
Trent  ?  How  is  it  that  those  who  reject  it  have  never  in  any  age 
been  branded  with  the  anathemas  incurred  by  formal  heresy? 

The  champions  of  Gallicanism  are  scarce  in  the  nineteenth 
century ;  but  in  days  bygone,  when  it  was  first  attempted  to  in- 
troduce the  system  now  so  well  known  as  that  of  the  Koman 
Curia,  they  exhibited  no  lack  of  energy  and  ardour.  Collisions 
were  inevitable ;  and  the  thunders  of  the  fray,  on  certain 
memorable  occasions,  reverberated  through  the  very  heart  of 
Christendom.  It  is  satisfactory  to  reflect,  however,  on  looking 
down  the  vista  of  ages,  that  the  truths  so  strenuously  contended 


*  This  is  acknowledged  by  no  less 
an  authority  than  Cardinal  Du  Perron, 
in  his  reply  to  James  I.  of  England, 
as  quoted  by  Bossuet,  Def.  Declarat. 
Cler.  Gallic.,  Pnev.  Dissert.  Ixxxix. 
"  Quaestio  de  auctoritate  Papse  inter 
Catholicos  agitata,  sive  in  spiritualibus 
respectu  Conciliorum  CEcumenicorum, 
sive  in  temporalibua  respectu  juris- 
dictionum  saecularium,  quatenus  saluti 
animarum  obsunt,  non  est  qusestio 
ejusmodi  quse  res  complectatur  ab 
alterutra  parte  inter  articulos  fidei  re- 
censitas,  aut  ab  eis  exigatur  qui  ad 
Ecclesiam  redeant,  ita  ut  alii  alios  pro 
hsereticis  habeant,  aut  a  se  mutuo 
quoad  communion  is  vinculum  separen- 
tur.  Quare  ea  omnia  communioni  eccle- 
siasticte  sarciendse  impedimento  esse 
non  possunt,  cum  ejus  conditionis  sint, 
ut  quamcunque  partem  Rex  serenissi- 
mus  amplectatur,  haud  eo  secius  ab 
utraque  parte  jus  et  nomen  Catholici 
obtineat." 

t  The  Council  of  Florence,  as  the 
reader  need  scarcely  be  reminded,  is  not 
"  undisputed."  It  was  never  received 
by  the  Church  of  France.  Moreover, 


the  famous  decree  of  that  assembly  by 
no  means  establishes  the  modem  doc- 
trine of  Papal  autocracy,  though  it  is 
perpetually  cited  for  that  purpose.  The 
power  of  governing  the  universal 
Church,  there  attributed  to  the  Pope, 
is  carefully  limited  by  the  words  which 
follow  —  words  which  were  inserted 
because  the  Eastern  bishops  would  not 
subscribe  the  decree  without  them : 
K.aQ'  ov  rp6irov  ical  tv  rots  irpaKriKols  TWV 
olKovfjLeviK&v  ffvv6Sci>v  Kal  ev  rois  Ifpois 
Kavdffi  StetA.aju.jSai'fTcu.  "  In  that  manner 
which  is  laid  down  both  in  the  acts  of 
the  (Ecumenical  Councils  and  in  the 
sacred  canons."  This  inconvenient 
clause  has  been  garbled  in  the  Latin 
version  by  certain  critics,  who,  by  the 
slight  change  of  et  into  etiam,  contrive 
to  make  it  imply  precisely  the  reverse 
of  what  was  intended.  The  trick  has 
been  repeatedly  exposed ;  see  especially 
J.  de  Launoi,  Kpistola  ad  Christoph. 
Fauvxum,  Epp.  P.  lmap.  348.  Another 
favourite  device  is  to  quote  the  first 
part  of  the  decree,  suppressing  this 
most  significant  paragraph  altogether. 

B    2 


4  THE  GALLICA1S  CHUECH.  ISTBOD. 

for  by  the  far-famed  school  of  Gallican  divines  were  maintained 
without  any  open  breach  of  Catholic  communion  or  dereliction 
of  the  Rule  of  Faith.  Nor,  although  the  current  may  seem  to 
have  set  in  an  opposite  direction  in  the  Latin  Church  of  our  own 
and  one  or  two  preceding  generations,  is  there  any  cause  for 
apprehension  as  to  the  enduring  vitality  of  their  theology. 
Principles  which  have  survived  the  desolations  of  the  great 
Calvinist  schism,  the  corroding  ulcer  of  Jansenism,  and  the 
hurricane  of  an  infidel  Eevolution,  can  scarcely  have  much  to 
fear  from  the  ravages  of  time. 

II. 

The  Gallican  Church,  from  the  very  dawn  of  its  history, 
cordially  recognized  the  primacy,  and  in  a  certain  sense  the 
supremacy,  of  Rome  among  the  Episcopal  Sees  of  Christendom. 
It  was  to  Eleutherus,  Bishop  of  Home,  that  the  Martyrs  of  Lyons 
addressed  a  celebrated  letter,  appealing  to  him  for  aid  in  con- 
futing the  heresy  of  Montanus.*  The  bearer  of  that  letter  was 
Irenaeus,  then  a  Presbyter,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Lyons,  and  one 
of  the  brightest  luminaries  of  the  early  Church  in  Gaul.  From 
a  much-contested  passage  in  the  treatise  of  this  father  "  Against 
heresies "  we  may  at  least  infer  (after  making  every  allowance 
for  the  imperfect  state  in  which  the  work  has  come  down  to  us) 
that  he  regarded  the  Roman  See — "that  greatest  and  most 
ancient  Church  founded  by  the  two  glorious  Apostles,  Peter 
and  Paul" — with  deep  reverence  and  honour,  both  on  account 
of  its  pre-eminent  dignity,  and  on  account  of  the  fidelity  with 
which  it  had  preserved  and  handed  down  the  Divine  Deposit 
through  twelve  successive  episcopates.!  Similar  conclusions 


*  Euseb.,IT. J?.,Lib. v.4, 5.  Longue-  while  on  the  other  his  meaning  is 

val,  Hist,  de  TEgl.  Gallic.,  tom.i.  p.  19.  jealously  minimised  into  a  mere  ac- 

t  Iren.,  Conlr.  Hseres.,  HI.  cap.  3.  !  knowledgment  of  Rome  as  a  Church 

§  2.  The  greater  part  of  the  original  |  of  the  highest  antiquity  and  Apostolic 

text  of  Irenaeus  being  lost,  we  are  |  foundation.  Fenelon  (De  summi  Ponti- 

dependent  on  an  uncouth  and  possibly  |  ficigaudoritate,c&p.  10)  adopts  a  middle 

inaccurate  Latin  translation.  Under  j  course,  and  understands  the  passage  to 

these  circumstances  such  expressions  imply  the  indefectibility  of  Rome  in 

as  "  propter  potiorem  (or  potentiorem)  '  holding  fast  the  deposit  of  faith.  Such, 

principalitatem,"  and  "  ad  hanc  eccle-  too,  is  Bossuet's  view  (Defen.  Dedarat., 

siam  necesse  est  omnem  convenire  eccle-  !  P.  HI.,  Lib.  x.  c.  6.)  In  his  Serm.  "  Sur 

siam,"  lie  fairly  open  to  criticism,  j  1'Unite  de  1'Eglise,"  however,  he  trans- 

Accordingly,  Irenaeus  is  confidently  i  lates  the  word  "  convenire "  by  "  s'ac- 

claimed  on  one  side  as  an  asserter  of  ,  corder.''  "  CPest  avec  cette  Eglise  que 

the  absolute  monarchy  of  the  Roman  !  toutes  les  Eglises  et  tous  les  fideles  qui 

Pontiff  over  the  universal  Church  ;  i  sont  par  toute  la  terre  doivent  s'accorder, 


INTEOD. 


APPEALS  TO  ROME. 


may  be  drawn  from  the  proceedings  of  the  First  Council  of 
Aries  (A.D.  314).  The  fathers  there  assembled  transmitted 
their  canons  with  profound  respect  to  Pope  Sylvester,  in  order 
that  (as  they  express  it  in  their  synodical  epistle)  "  by  him,  who 
presided  over  the  greater  dioceses,  they  might  be  notified  to  the 
Christian  world."*  At  the  same  time  it  is  evident,  both  from 
their  words  and  acts,  that  they  considered  the  Council  to  possess 
inherently  all  necessary  power  of  legislation,  apart  from  any 
exercise  of  authority  on  the  part  of  the  Roman  Pontiff. 

The  all-important  principle  of  appeal  to  the  Apostolic  See  in 
the  "causse  majores" — the  pivot,  as  it  proved  eventually,  of  the 
whole  system  of  Papal  domination — began  to  prevail  in  Gaul  in 
the  early  part  of  the  fifth  century.  Mention  is  made  of  it 
in  a  decretal  epistle  of  Pope  Innocent  I.  to  Victricius,  Bishop  of 
Rouen,  A.D.  404.  In  reply  to  certain  enquiries  of  that  prelate 
on  matters  of  discipline,  the  Pope  directs,  among  other  things, 
that  ecclesiastical  causes  shall  be  judged,  according  to  the 
canons  of  Nicsea,  by  the  Provincial  Council,  and  that  none  shall 
be  permitted  to  decline  its  jurisdiction  in  order  to  seek  justice 
elsewhere ; — "  without  prejudice,"  he  adds, "  to  the  rights  of  the 
Roman  Church,  for  which  in  all  proceedings  due  respect  must  be 
observed.  If  greater  causes  should  arise,  they  must  be  reserved, 
after  the  sentence  of  the  bishops  has  been  pronounced,  to  the 


a  cause  de  sa  principals  et  excellente 
priucipauteV  —  CEuvrea,  torn.  xv.  p.  521. 
For  the  Protestant  interpretation,  see 
David  Blondel,  Traite  de  la  Primnute' 
en  I'Eglise,  p.  17  el  seq.  This  locus 
vexatus  is  certainly  capable  of  more 
than  one  construction  as  to  doctrine  ; 
but  its  general  sense  as  illustrating  a 
historical  fact  is,  I  conceive,  sufficiently 
obvious.  The  recent  version  in  the 
"  Ante-Nicene  Library  "  renders  it  thus  : 
"  It  is  a  matter  of  necessity  that  every 
Church  should  agree  with  this  Church, 
on  account  of  its  pre-eminent  au- 
thority." There  is  now  little  doubt 
among  scholars  that  the  original  read- 
ing of  this  latter  phrase  was  Sta  rfr 


*"  Dilectissi  mo  Papas  Silvestro.  Ad 
Arelatensem  civitatem  piissimi  Impent- 
toris  voluntate  adducti,  inde  te,  glorio- 
sissime  Papa,  comment^  rcverentia  sa- 
lutamus.  Placuit  enim  a  te,  qui  majores 
Dioeceses  tenes,  et  per  te  potissimum 


omnibus-  insinuari."  This  Council  of 
Aries  was  attended  by  bishops  from  all 
parts  of  the  Latin  Church,  and  was 
virtually  a  General  Council  of  the  West. 
The  phrase  "majores  dioeceses"  pro- 
bably refers  to  the  greater  number  and 
extent  of  the  "dioceses"  (i.  e.  the  poli- 
tical divisions  of  the  empire,  so  called) 
contained  in  the  Patriarchate  of  Rome,  as 
compared  with  those  of  the  East.  Seven 
"  dioceses,"  if  not 'more,  were  subject  to 
the  Roman  jurisdiction  (De  Marca,  De 
Concord.,  Lib.'v.  c.  19).  F.  Longueval 
(Hist,  de  I'Egl.  Gallic.,  torn.  ii.  p.  184) 
concurs  in  regarding  the  language  of 
this  Council  as  amounting  to  a  recogni- 
tion of  Sylvester  as  patriarch  of  the 
West.  Whether  these  territorial  details 
had  been  precisely  arranged  at  that 
early  date  is  perhaps  questionable ;  but 
in  any  case  we  have  here  sufficient 
proof  of  •  the  high  position  and  pre- 
rogative assigned  even  then  to  the  see 
of  St.  Peter. 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


INTBOD. 


Holy  See,  in  pursuance  of  the  injunctions  of  the  Council."* 
Not  many  years  afterwards  we  meet  with  a  remarkable  in- 
stance of  appeal  to  Rome  on  the  part  of  a  Gallican  bishop,  the 
results  of  which  went  far  to  settle  the  usage  of  the  Western 
Church  in  this  particular. 

A  dispute  of  long  standing  existed  between  the  bishops  of 
Aries  and  Vienne  with  regard  to  precedency  and  metropolitical 
jurisdiction.  The  question  was  brought  before  a  Council  at  Turin 
in  the  year  401,  when  it  was  decided,  for  the  sake  of  peace,  that 
the  dignity  of  metropolitan  should  belong  to  that  prelate  who 
could  prove  his  see  to  be  the  civil  capital  of  the  province ;  and 
that,  meanwhile,  each  should  execute  the  office  in  the  dioceses 
nearest  to  his  own.t  The  strife  was  thus  suspended  for  the  time ; 
but  in  417  Patroclus,  Bishop  of  Aries,  addressed  himself  to  Pope 
Zosimus,  to  obtain  restitution  of  the  rights  which  he  maintained 
to  be  originally  inherent  in  his  see  ;  and  that  Pontiff,  probably 
without  sufficient  examination,  granted  his  request.  He  wrote 
to  the  bishops  of  Gaul,  directing  that  the  Bishop  of  Aries  should 
exercise  metropolitan  jurisdiction  over  three  provinces,  Viennensis 
and  lma  and  2^  Narbonensis ;  that  he  should  preside  at  the  con- 
secration of  their  bishops;  that  all  clergy  travelling  abroad 
should  obtain  from  him  "  litterae  formatse,"  or  commendatory 
letters ;  and  that  he  should  decide  ecclesiastical  causes,  with  the 
exception  of  those  which  were  important  enough  to  be  reserved 
to  the  cognizance  of  the  Pope  himself.  $  These  distinctions 
he  declared  to  rest  upon  the  Apostolic  foundation  of  the  See ; 
Trophimus  having  been  despatched  from  Rome  to  be  the  first 
Bishop  of  Aries,  and  the  Christian  faith  having  been  diffused 
from  that  original  source  throughout  Gaul.§ 


*  Innoc.,  Epist.  ad  Victric.  Eotomag. 
ap.  Sirmond,  Cone.  Antiq.  Gall.,  torn.  i. 
p.  30.  Longueval,  Hist,  de  I'Egl.  Gallic., 
torn.  ii.  p.  47.  By  "  the  Council,"  In- 
nocent means  that  of  Sardica,  A.D.  347; 
which,  as  is  well  known,  laid  down  the 
earliest  regulations  as  to  the  practice 
of  appealing  to  the  Roman  See.  The 
canons  of  Sardica  were  frequently  con- 
founded with  those  of  Nicaea,  the  one 
Council  being  regarded  as  the  con- 
tinuation of  the  other.  Cf.  Ballerin.,  Ap- 
pend, ad.  8.  Leon.  Opp.  Pt.  II  p.  57. 

t  Labbe,  Condi.,  torn.  ii.  p.  1155; 
Sirmond,  Concil.  Ant.  Gall,  torn.  i.  p.  27. 


J  Sirmond,  Cone.  Ant.  Gall.,  torn.  i. 
p.  42.  De  Marca,  De  Concord.,  Lib.  v. 
cap.  30  §  5.  Fleury,  H.  E.,  Liv.  xxiii. 
§45. 

§  Zosim.,  Ep.  ad  universes  Episcopos 
GaRix.  "  Jussimus  prsecipuam,  sicuti 
semper  habuit,Metropolitanus  episcopus 
Arelatensium  civitatis  in  ordinandis 
sacerdotibus  teneat  anctoritatem  .... 
Metropolitans  Arelatensium  urbi  vetua 
privilegium  minime  derogandum  est.  ad 
quam  primum  ex  hac  sede  Trophimus 
summus  Antistes,  ex  cujus  fonte  tofee 
Galliaa  fidei  rivulos  acceperurt,  directus 
est."  The  date  of  the  mission  of  Tro- 


IN  TROD. 


S.  LEO  AND  S.  HILARY  OF  ARLES. 


But  this  judgment  by  no  means  put  an  end  to  the  dispute. 
The  very  complicated  case  of  Hilary,  Bishop  of  Aries,  during 
the  Pontificate  of  Leo  the  Great,  reopened  the  whole  question ; 
and  all  parties  interested  recurred  repeatedly  to  Eome.  Hilary 
was  accused  to  the  Pope  of  assuming  primatial  authority  over 
the  whole  Gallic  Church,  and  in  particular,  of  having  un- 
lawfully deposed  Celidonius,  apparently  a  bishop  of  the  pro- 
vince of  Vienne.  Celidonius  appealed  to  the  Pope  ;  and  Hilary 
himself  proceeded  forthwith  to  Home,  where  he  demeaned 
himself  towards  his  superior  in  a  somewhat  arrogant  and  un- 
becoming style.  Leo  assembled  his  Council,  reversed  Hilary's 
judgment,  and  reinstated  Celidonius,  who  seems  to  have  been 
innocent  of  the  offence  imputed  to  him.  Hence  we  may 
infer  that  the  regulations  of  the  Council  of  Sardica  on  appeals 
were  at  this  period  either  unrecognized  or  very  imperfectly 
observed.*  Had  they  been  in  full  operation,  Hilary  would  not 
have  been  justified  on  his  part  in  complaining  of  Celidonius 


pliimus  to  Gaul,  and  of  the  foundation 
of  the  see  of  Aries,  has  been  the  subject 
of  much  controversy.  Pope  Zosimus 
does  not  expressly  identify  him  with 
the  Trophimus  of  Scripture;  and  al- 
though the  bishops  of  the  province  of 
Aries,  in  their  epistle  to  Pope  Leo, 
(Cone.  Antiq.  Gall.,  torn.  i.  p.  89),  state 
that  S.  Trophimus  was  sent  to  Gaul 
"  by  the  most  blessed  apostle  St.  Peter," 
this  need  not  mean  more  than  that  he 
was  sent  by  the  authority  of  the  bishop 
of  Home,  St.  Peter's  successor.  Later, 
however,  in  the  same  epistle,  they  say 
distinctly  that  Trophimus  was  sent 
"by  the  Apostles."  De  Marca,  in  his 
"  Epist.  ad.  Henricum  Valesium  "  (De 
Concord.,  torn,  iv.),  contends  for  the 
Apostolic  institution  of  the  see ;  but  the 
opposite  opinion  is  ably  maintained  by 
De  Launoi,  in  his  "  Dispunctio  Epistolse 
de  tempore  quo  primum  in  Galliis  sus- 
cepta  est  Christi  fides  "  (Opusc.,  torn.  v.). 
The  latter  view  rests  chiefly  on  the 
testimony  of  S.  Gregory  of  Tours,  ac- 
cording to  whom  Trophimus  was  one 
of  a  band  of  missionaries  sent  to  Gaul 
by  Pope  Fabian,  in  the  consulate  of 
Decius,  A.D.  250.  This  is  far  the  more 
probable  account.  Tillemont  and  Bal- 
lerini  consider  that  Zosimus  was  im- 
posed upon  by  Patroclus  and  others  in 
his  interest,  who  invented  the  story  of 
the  Apostolic  mission  of  Trophimus  for 


the  purpose  of  supporting  the  high- 
flown  pretensions  of  the  see  of  Aries. 

*  F.  Quesnel  (Dissert.  V.  Apol.  pro 
S.  Hilario,  S.  Leon.,  Opp.,  torn.  ii.  p. 
833.',  argues  that  the  Gallicau  Church, 
following  the  example  of  the  African 
and  the  Eastern  churches,  did  not 
receive  the  canons  of  the  Council  of 
Sardica.  Had  those  canons  formed  part 
of  the  Gallican  code,  Pope  Leo,  he 
remarks,  would  certainly  have  referred 
to  them  on  the  present  occasion,  since 
the  right  of  Celidonius  to  appeal  to 
the  Roman  See  would  thus  be  estab- 
lished beyond  dispute.  Quesnel's  ob- 
ject, of  course,  is  to  show  that  the  ap- 
pellate jurisdiction  of  Rome  was  un- 
known to  antiquity,  and  that  the 
assumption  of  such  power  was  resisted 
with  special  vigour  in  Gaul.  But  it 
would  appear  that  the  tradition  of 
the  Church  had  to  some  extent  estab- 
lished that  prerogative  antecedently 
to  any  positive  enactment  of  statute 
Jaw.  Jt  was  looked  upon  as  an  in- 
herent attribute  of  the  primacy  of 
the  bishop  of  Rome  as  successor  of  St. 
Peter.  St.  Leo  speaks  of  it,  in  his 
celebrated  Epistle  to  the  bishops  of 
the  province  of  Vienne,  as  an  ancient 
custom,  a  standing  rule  of  the  Church, 
for  the  purpose  of  preserving  the  bond 
of  Christian  charity,  and  uniformity  of 
ecclesiastical  discipline.  "  Nobiscum 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


INTROD. 


for  carrying  his  suit  to  Home,  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  could  the 
Pope  have  adjudicated  the  cause  without  previously  referring  it 
to  a  Commission  on  the  spot  for  a  second  examination.  Leo, 
however,  was  not  content  with  rescinding  Hilary's  decision  ;  he 
visited  him  with  severe  censure,  deprived  him  of  the  Primacy 
granted  to  his  predecessor,*  declared  him  to  be  severed  from  the 
communion  of  the  Holy  See,  and  intimated  that  it  was  a  matter 
of  favour  that  he  was  not  deposed  from  his  office,  f  It  was  on 
this  occasion,  too,  that  the  Pontiff  procured  from  Yalentinian  III. 
an  edict  affirming  his  supremacy  in  the  government  of  the  Church, 
forbidding  the  bishops,  whether  in  Gaul  or  other  provinces,  to 
vary  from  ancient  custom  without  his  permission,  and  enjoining 
his  officers,  civil  and  military,  to  enforce  submission  to  the  Pope 
in  case  of  need.  | 

The  question  between  Aries  and  Vienne  was  decided  by  Pope 


vestra  fraternitas  recognoscat,  Apos- 
tolicam  Sedem  pro  sui  reverentia  k 
vestrse  etiam  provincial  sacerdotibus 
innumeris  relationibus  esse  consultam, 
et  per  diversarum,  quemadmodum 
vetua  consuetude  poscebat,  appella- 
tiones  causa  rum  aut  retractata  aut 
confirmata  esse  judicia;  adeo  ut  ser- 
vata  imitate  spiritus  in  vinculo  pacis, 
commeantibus  hinc  inde  litteris,  quod 
saucte  agebatur  perpetuse  proficeret 
caritati."  There  was  no  need  for  him 
to  quote  the  Sardican  canons  (especially 
as  he  had  not  acted  in  accordance  with 
them\  when  he  could  appeal  to  the 
fact  that  these  very  bishops  and  their 
predecessors  had  been  constantly  accus- 
tomed to  address  themselves  to  the 
Holy  See  in  matters  requiring  final 
arbitration.  That  the  canons  in  ques- 
tion, if  not  known  to  the  Gallican 
Church  of  that  age,  were  subsequently 
not  only  received,  but  zealously  insisted 
on,  in  France,  is  acknowledged  on  all 
hands. 

*  This  seems  to  have  been  previously 
revoked  by  Pope  Boniface.  "Cum  et 
ipsum  quod  Patroclo  a  sede  Apostolica 
temporaliter  videbatur  esse  concessum, 
postmodum  sit  sententisl  meliore  subla- 
tum"  (S.  Leon.,  Epist.  x.  cap.  4). 

t  S.  Leon.,  Epist.  x.  cap.  7,  Ad  Episc. 
Provinc.  Vienn.  The  phrase  "  Exsors 
Apostolic®  communionis "  probably 
refers  not  to  any  sentence  of  excom- 
munication, but  to  Hilary's  clandestine 


flight  from  Eome,  by  which  he  had 
shut  himself  out  from  participation  in 
the  religious  rites  and  synodal  acts  of 
his  brother  prelates. 

%  Constitutio  Valentiniani  III.  Au- 
gusti,  De  Episcoporum  ordinatione. — S. 
Leon.,  Opp.,  torn.  i.  p.  642.  It  is  ad- 
dressed to  the  patrician  Aetius,  com- 
mander of  the  troops  in  Gaul.  It  states 
that  Hilary,  called  Bishop  of  Aries, 
had  rashly  usurped  the  power  of  judging 
and  ordaining  bishops  without  con- 
sulting the  Roman  Pontiff.  Some  he 
had  illegally  removed,  others  he  had 
ordained  against  the  will  of  the  citi- 
zens. Sentence  had  been  passed  against 
him  by  the  Pope,  and  that  sentence 
would  be  valid  even  without  confirma- 
tion by  the  Emperor.  "  Quid  enim 
tanti  Pontificis  auctorilati  in  ecclesiis 
non  liceret!"  But  lest  Hilary,  or  any 
one  else,  should  venture  to  offend  again 
in  like  manner,  he  decrees,  as  a  per- 
petual rule  that  neither  the  bishops 
of  Gaul  nor  of  other  provinces  shall 
attempt  any  innovation  upon  ancient 
custom  without  the  sanction  of  the 
"  venerable  Pope  of  the  Eternal  City." 
"  Hoc  illis  omnibusque  pro  lege  sit, 
quidquid  sanxit  vel  sanxerit  Apos- 
folicffi  Sedis  auctoritas ;  ita  ut  quisquis 
Episcoporum  ad  judicium  Romaui  An- 
tistitis  evocatus  venire  neglexerit,  per 
Moderatorem  ejusdem  provinciae  adesse 
cogatur." 


INTROD.        DECISION  BETWEEN  ARLES  AND  VIENNE.  9 

Leo  in  the  year  449.  He  observes,  in  reply  to  a  memorial  from 
the  bishops  of  the  province  of  Vienne,  that  the  two  Sees  had 
enjoyed  precedence  alternately ;  special  privileges  having  been 
conferred  sometimes  on  the  one,  sometimes  on  the  other.  For 
this  reason  he  judged  it  right  to  make  a  division  of  the  contested 
jurisdiction.  He  assigns  to  the  Bishop  of  Vienne  the  four  neigh- 
bouring dioceses  of  Valence,  Tarantaise,  Geneva,  and  Grenoble ; 
the  remaining  sees  of  the  same  province  being  placed  under  the 
authority  of  the  Bishop  of  Aries.*  Subsequent  Pontiffs,  however, 
conferred  various  important  prerogatives  on  the  Metropolitans 
of  Aries.  They  were  appointed  Vicars  and  Legates  of  the  Holy 
See  ;  invested  with  the  pallium  as  the  symbol  of  that  office ;  and 
empowered  to  convoke  and  preside  at  Councils  throughout  Gaul. 
St.  Caesarius  was  the  first  who  received  the  distinction  of  the 
pallium.  Pope  Symmachus  confirmed  to  him  at  the  same  time 
(A.D.  513)  all  the  privileges  belonging  to  his  See  and  exercised 
by  his  predecessors,  and  even  extended  his  jurisdiction  into 
Spain.! 

From  the  time  of  Leo  the  Great  the  Popes  may  be  said  to 
have  possessed  a  generally  acknowledged  patriarchal  authority 
throughout  the  Gallic  Church.  Nor  does  it  appear  that  the 
administration  of  the  Roman  Patriarch,  in  the  form  established 
in  those  early  ages,  was  on  the  whole  inconsistent  with  the 
legitimate  principles  of  Church  Government.  On  the  contrary, 
it  tended  materially  to  the  maintenance  of  unity  and  discipline 
in  times  of  great  political  disorder  and  social  danger.  The  Pope 
was  universally  admitted  to  be  the  first  bishop  of  Christendom ; 
but  his  government  was  that  of  a  constitutional,  not  of  an 
absolute,  monarch.  His  Patriarchal  dignity  was  held  in  com- 
mon with  that  of  four  other  Patriarchs,  and  was  not  as  yet 
developed  into  a  Primacy  of  universal  jurisdiction.  He  did 
not  claim  to  be  the  sole  source  of  ecclesiastical  legislation ; 
he  did  not  pretend  to  be  independent  of  Councils  and  canons. 
The  Popes  of  those  days  were  in  the  habit  of  reiterating  on 
all  occasions,  and  with  every  variety  of  expression,  the  fact 
that  they  were  the  guardians  of  the  statute  law  of  the  Church ; 
that  they  had  no  power  to  alter  or  abrogate  those  statutes; 


*  S.  Leon.,  Epist.  Ixvi.  (al.  1.),  torn.  i.       187;   Thomassin,    Vet.  et  Nov,  Ecclea. 
p.  998.  Discip ,  I.  Lib.  ii.  cap.  54. 

f  'Sirmond,  Cone.  Ant.  Gall.,  tom.i.  p.   ! 


10 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


INTUOD. 


that  it  was  the  peculiar  characteristic  and  glory  of  the  Koman 
See  to  maintain  inviolate  the  tradition  of  antiquity  and  the 
canonical  decrees  of  Councils.  A  great  Gallican  doctor,  Jean 
de  Launoi,  has  taken  the  pains  to  collect  a  series  of  sixty- 
three  declarations  to  this  effect  from  the  writings  of  different 
Popes ;  in  which  they  acknowledge  themselves  to  be  bound,  by 
special  obligations,  to  conform  personally  to  the  legislation  of  the 
Church,  and  to  enforce  its  authority  throughout  the  Christian 
world.*  The  same  principle  is  further  illustrated,  with  singular 
force,  by  the  'Liber  diurnus  Eomanorum  Pontificum,' t  which 
contains  the  formulas  by  which  the  Popes  of  all  ages  have  en- 
gaged, at  their  inauguration,  to  observe  to  the  very  letter  (usque 


*  Launoi.,  Epistol.  Pars  iii.   Ep.  ad 
Thomam  Rullandum. 

t  The  '  Liber  Diurnus '  is  a  collec- 
tion of  official  formularies  relating  to 
points  of  ecclesiastical  discipline  and 
administration,  anciently  in  use  in  the 
Boman  Chancery.  It  appears  from 
internal  and  external  evidence  to  date 
from  the  end  of  the  7th  century.  In 
the  course  of  ages  it  became  obsolete, 
Hnd  fell  into  oblivion,  insomuch  that 
Antonio  Augustin,  the  great  Spanish 
canonist  in  the  16th  century,  was  not 
aware  of  its  existence.  At  length  a 
MS.  copy  was  discovered  by  Luke  Hoi- 
stein,  afterwards  librarian  of  the  Vati- 
can, in  the  church  of  Sta.  Croce  di 
Gerusalemrne  at  Rome,  about  the  year 
1645.  Holstein  collated  it  with  a  second 
MS.  belonging  to  the  library  of  the 
College  de  Clermont  at  Paris,  and  pre- 
pared an  edition  for  publication;  but 
the  Papal  censors  of  the  press  declined, 
on  various  pretexts,  to  grant  the  re- 
quisite permission.  Holstein  died  in 
1661,  and  nothing  more  was  heard  of 
the  Liber  Diurnus  till  1680,  when  it 
suddenly  made  its  appearance  in  print 
under  the  auspices  of  Father  Gamier, 
a  learned  Jesuit  of  Paris,  librarian  of 
the  Colle'ge  de  Clermont.  This  step 
gave  umbrage  at  Rome,  and  Gamier 
was  summoned  thither  to  account  for 
his  conduct;  but  he  died  during  the 
journey,  at  Bologna,  in  October,  1681. 
The  obnoxious  volume  narrowly  es- 
caped being  put  upon  the  Index,  and 
copies  of  it  became  extremely  rare. 
During  the  Pontificate  of  Benedict 
XIII.,  however,  the  susceptibilities  of 
the  Roman  court  as  to  certain  facts 


referred  to  in  the  Liber  Diurnus  under- 
went considerable  abatement ;  and  in 
1724  it  was  reprinted  from  the  edition 
of  Gamier,  though  with  such  precau- 
tions as  effectually  prevented  its  getting 
into  general  circulation.  Since  then 
it  has  often  reappeared  in  learned  col- 
lections ;  but  the  most  complete  edition 
is  that  recently  published  at  Paris  fey 
M.  Eugene  de  Roziere,  Inspecteur-Ge'ne'- 
ral  des  Archives.  The  editor  has  pre- 
fixed a  most  interesting  Introduction, 
to  which  I  am  indebted  for  the  fore- 
going details. 

The  reader  to  whom  this  story  is 
new  will  be  curious  to  learn  why  the 
court  of  Rome  should  have  taken  so 
much  pains  to  hinder  the  Liber  Diurnus 
from  seeing  the  light.  The  following 
seems  to  be  the  true  explanation : — 
Among  the  documents  contained  in 
the  volume,  perhaps  the  most  important 
is  the  "  Professio  Romani  Pontificis," 
or  solemn  declaration  of  faith  made  by 
the  Popes  at  their  enthronization. 
Three  forms  of  it  are  preserved;  in 
one  of  which,  the  second,  mention  is 
made  of  Pope  Honorius,  who,  as  is  well 
known,  was  denounced  as  a  heretic  by 
the  Sixth  General  Council  for  his  weak 
complicity  with  the  Monothelites.  The 
occurrence  of  this  awkward  passage 
in  the  Professio  is  quite  sufficient  to 
account  for  the  reluctance  of  the  au- 
thorities at  Rome  to  sanction  its  publi- 
cation to  the  world.  Cardinal  Bona, 
to  whom  the  work  was  submitted  for 
examination,  candidly  gave  this  as  his 
reason  for  recommending  that  Hoi- 
stein's  edition  should  be  suppressed, 
"Cum  in  professione  electi  Pontificis 


INTROD. 


THE  'LIBEK  DIURNUS.' 


11 


ad  unum  apicem)  the  decrees  of  the  (Ecumenical  Councils ;  to 
affirm  and  teach  whatever  the  Church  in  her  legislative  assem- 
blies has  affirmed  and  taught ;  to  condemn  and  reject  whatever 
has  been  synodically  condemned  and  rejected  by  the  same  autho- 
rity.* That  any  Pope  should  deliberately  violate  or  set  aside  the 
enactments  of  general  Councils  was  a  contingency  scarcely  con- 
templated by  the  ancient  Church.  For  such  enactments  were 
presumed  to  be  made  under  the  immediate  sanction  and  direction 
of  the  Koman  Patriarch;  so  that,  in  opposing  them,  he  would 
be  resisting  and  annulling  his  own  acts. 

It  was  only  in  proportion  as  these  grave  truths  began  to  be 
forgotten  in  the  rapid  aggrandizement  which  was  almost  thrust 
upon  the  Papacy  after  the  fall  of  the  Carlovingian  Empire,  that 
National  Churches  found  it  necessary  to  recur  to  the  provisions 
of  immemorial  discipline,  and  to  insist  on  the  observance  of  their 
ancient  "liberties." 

Ecclesiastical  "  liberty "  is  a  phrase  which  has  become  in  great 


damnetur  Honoring  Papa  ideo  quia 
pravis  haereticorum  assertionibus  fo- 
mentum  impendit,  si  verba  delineata 
sint  vere  in  autograph  o,  nee  ex  notis 
apparere  possit  quomodo  huic  vulneri 
medelam  afferat,  prsestat  non  divulgari 
opus."  Father  Sirmond  agreed  with 
him  in  opinion.  (£ee  De  Boziere,  In- 
troduction, p.  113.) 

The  case  of  Honorius  must  always 
be  one  of  crucial  difficulty  to  those  who 
are  committed  to  the  extreme  ultra- 
montane dogma  of  the  personal  infalli- 
bility of  the  Pope.  Human  ingenuity 
has  been  taxed  to  the  utmost  to  elude 
the  verdict  of  history  upon  the  point, 
but  in  vain.  It  has  been  asserted  by 
various  advocates  (1),  that  the  acts  of 
the  Council  were  falsified;  (2),  that 
the  judgment  of  the  Council  was  mis- 
taken ;  (3),  that  Honorius  misunder- 
stood the  question  at  issue,  and  that 
his  opinion  was  orthodox,  though  irrele- 
vant to  the  controversy;  (4),  that  in 
his  letters  to  Sergius  he  was  speaking 
not  ex  Cathedra,  but  only  as  a  private 
theologian ;  (5),  that  although  justly 
condemned,  he  was  not  condemned  for 
heresy,  but  only  for  giving  countenance 
to  heretics.  These  are  pleas  which 
have  been  often  and  unanswerably  re- 
futed. But  although  the  fall  of  Ho- 
norius is  fatal  to  the  claim  of  per- 
sonal infallibility,  it  concludes  nothing 


against  that  advanced  by  Bossuet  and 
other  Gallican  divines,  namely,  that 
the  See  of  St.  Peter  is  indefectible  in 
preserving  and  transmitting  the  deposit 
of  faith.  According  to  them  a  marked 
distinction  must  be  observed  between 
the  Koman  See  and  the  individual  who 
occupies  it.  An  individual  Pope  may 
err,  but  the  taint  will  be  transient, 
and  can  never  take  permanent  root  in 
the  Apostolic  See ;  the  "  faith  of  Peter  " 
will  unfailingly  survive  to  the  end  of 
time,  by  virtue  of  Christ's  promise  that 
the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail 
against  His  Church. 

*  "  Sancta  Universalia  Concilia,  Ni- 
csenum,  Constantinopolitanum,  Ephe- 
sinum  primum,  &c.,  usque  ad  unum 
apicem  immutilata  servare;  quaeque 
prsedicaverunt,  prsedicare,  quaeque  con- 
demnaverunt,  ore  et  corde  condemnare. 
Diligentius  autem  et  vivacius,  quamdiu 
vixero,  omnia  decreta  canonica  prsede- 
cessorum  nostrorum  Pontificum,  quae- 
cunque  ipsi  synodaliter  statuerunt,  et 
probata  sunt,  confirmare  et  indiminuta 
servare,  et  sicut  ab  eis  statuta  sunt,  in 
sui  vigoris  stabilitate  custodire;  quae- 
que vel  quoscunque  condemnaverunt 
vel  abdicaverunt  simili  sententid.  con- 
demnare vel  abdicare."  This  "Pro- 
fessio"  is  inserted  in  Gratian's  De- 
cretum,  Dist.  xvi.  c.  8.  It  is  also  twice 
quoted  by  Ivo  of  Chartres. 


12  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  INTBOD. 

measure  identified  with  the  history  of  the  Church  in  France ; 
but  it  must  be  observed  that,  in  the  claims  originally  advanced 
in  that  behalf,  there  was  nothing  peculiar  to  any  single  member 
of  the  Christian  Commonwealth.  All  that  was  demanded  was 
this;  that  the  constitutional  charter  —  the  "common  law" — 
of  the  Church  should  be  obeyed  in  practice.*  Freedom  of 
episcopal  election;  the  unshackled  exercise  of  metropolitical 
jurisdiction ;  the  regular  celebration  of  Councils,  especially  of 
Provincial  Councils;  the  administration  of  discipline  through 
the  ecclesiastical  courts,  unimpeded  either  by  the  arbitrary  con- 
trol of  the  State  or  by  the  indefinite  multiplication  of  appeals  to 
Eome ;  —such  were  the  franchises  vindicated  by  Gallican  theolo- 
gians ;  not,  however,  as  belonging  exclusively  to  France,  but  as 
component  parts  of  that  Divinely-bequeathed  heritage  which  is 
the  property  of  the  Church  universal.  The  selfsame  objects  were 
anxiously  pursued  in  other  quarters  of  the  Christian  world ;  but 
nowhere  was  the  resistance  to  innovation  so  steadily  sustained, 
so  discriminating,  or  on  the  whole  so  successful,  as  in  France. 
Hence  the  special  significance  of  the  term  "liberty"  as  applied 
to  the  Gallican  branch  of  the  Church  Catholic.!  Other  nations 
of  Europe  fell  into  excesses  in  opposite  directions;  excesses 
either  of  blind  abject  submission  to  the  Papal  autocracy,  as  in 
Italy  and  Spain ;  or  of  rebellion  ending  in  the  disruption  of  visible 
unity,  as  in  Germany  and  England.  The  tone  maintained  in 
France  was  for  the  most  part  dignified,  temperate,  respectful ; 
combining  a  resolute  assertion  of  the  principles  both  of  civil  and 
ecclesiastical  freedom,  with  profound  devotion  to  the  Patriarchal 
See  of  the  West,  and  with  obedience  to  its  occupants  in  all 
things  lawfully  enjoined. 

Thus  the  distinctive  truths  illustrated  by  the  Gallican  Church 
of  former  days  were  principally  these : — that  a  National  Church, 
while  following  the  broad  track  of  Latin  tradition  as  to  the 
primacy  of  the  "  Cathedra  Petri,"  may  witness  at  the  same  time 
to  the  co-ordinate  power  of  government  which  resides  by  Divine 


*  "Nativas  Ecclesiae  Catholicse  liber-  I  f  "  Dt-bttitata  in  cseteris  regnis  canon- 

tates,  sive  jus  commune  a  Deo  ct  nu-  !  um  auctoritate,  ut  tignificaretur  apud 

tura    institutum." — Edm.    Richer,    De  \  nos  aliquam  partem  canonicse  libertatis 

Ecdes.  et  Polit.  Potestate,  cap.  13.     Cf.  retineri,  libertatis  Eccleaae  Gallicanse 

De  Marca,  De  Concord.  Sac.  et  Imp.,  \  speciale  nomen    inductum    est. ' — De 

Lib.  iii.  cap.  1,  §7.  !  Marca,  De  Concord,  ubi  supra. 


IKTBOD.  PERVERSION  OF  GALLICAN  LIBERTY.  13 

right  in  the  whole  Episcopal  college ;  that  the  Canon  Law,  not 
the  will  of  a  personally  infallible  Pontiff,  is  the  standard  of  the 
Church's  jurisprudence ;  that  it  is  possible  to  hold  the  doctrinal 
creed  committed  to  the  Church  from  the  beginning,  without 
acquiescing  in  Roman  usurpations  in  other  departments  of  the 
ecclesiastical  economy ; — in  short,  that,  in  order  to  be  Catholic, 
it  is  not  absolutely  necessary  to  be  Ultramontane. 

It  cannot  be  denied,  however,  that  Gallicanism  may  be  con- 
templated from  a  very  different  and  far  less  advantageous  point 
of  view.  The  position  occupied  by  France  in  regard  to  the 
Papacy  was  not  devoid  of  serious  countervailing  drawbacks.  The 
Gallican  Church  freed  itself,  to  a  certain  extent,  from  the  tyran- 
nical yoke  of  Rome ;  but  this  partial  emancipation  was  pur- 
chased only  at  the  price  of  momentous  concessions  to  the  State. 
"  Gallican  liberty  " — if  it  signified  that  constitutional  autonomy 
which  is  the  birthright  of  the  Church  Catholic, — was  indeed 
worth  any  sacrifice  ;  but  what  if  liberty  should  be  craftily  trans- 
formed into  servitude*  by  the  domineering  action  of  the  civil 
power  ?  The  Pope,  though  he  might  sometimes  make  an 
oppressive  and  mistaken  use  of  his  prerogatives,  was  neverthe- 
less the  chief  Pastor  of  the  Church — one  whose  spiritual  character 
and  Divine  commission  could  not  be  disputed.  But  in  pro- 
portion as  attempts  were  made  to  repress  the  exorbitant  pre- 
tensions of  ambitious  Pontiffs,  the  door  was  opened  for  intrusion 
on  the  part  of  another  Element,  which,  although  sovereign  in 
things  temporal,  possessed  no  spiritual  authority  or  jurisdiction 
whatever. 

Hence  arose  an  arduous  struggle,  which  was  prolonged  for 
centuries,  if  indeed  it  can  be  said  even  now  to  be  finally  decided. 
Its  general  result  is  written  on  the  face  of  history  too  plainly  to 
be  mistaken.  Whatever  was  wrested  from  the  Pope  was  appro- 
priated by  the  Crown.  So  that,  in  process  of  time,  while  stoutly 
protesting  against  any  recognition  of  Pontifical  supremacy  in 
things  temporal,  the  French  Church  found  itself  reduced  to  the 
anomalous  necessity  of  accepting  the  Royal  supremacy  in  many 
things  intrinsically  spiritual. 

Under  such  circumstances,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that 


*  "  Servitutes  potius  quam  libertates."    See  the  letter  of  the  Galilean  bishops 
in  1639. — Procea-werbaux,  &c.,  torn,  iii.,  Pieces  justificatives,  No.  1. 


14  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  INTROD. 

the  phrase  "  Galilean  liberty "  has  become  ambiguous,  and  is 
used  in  two  different  acceptations.  In  its  primary  and  genuine 
sense  it  implies  the  right  of  the  Galilean  Church  (as  of  all 
national  churches)  to  administer  its  own  government  within  cer- 
tain limits — those  limits  being  determined  by  the  canons  of 
Councils  and  the  practice  of  the  purest  ages  of  antiquity.  But 
the  same  term  was  applied,  in  later  times,  to  the  assumptions 
of  the  State  in  matters  extraneous  to  its  proper  province,  under 
pretence  of  maintaining  national  independence  as  against  the 
usurpations  of  the  Papacy.  Ultramontane  controversialists  are 
glad  to  avail  themselves  of  this  convenient  equivoque.  They 
studiously  ignore  the  ancient,  unadulterated  Gallicanism,  and 
seek  to  persuade  us  that  the  system  known  by  that  name  was 
fabricated  by  a  royal  despot  and  his  sycophant  bishops  towards 
the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century.  They  confound  the  abuses 
which  arose  from  the  absolutism  of  the  Crown  with  that  primi- 
tive organization  which  in  all  ages  has  confronted  the  absolutism 
of  Borne. 

Against  this  artifice  the  reader  will  do  well  to  be  on  his  guard. 
We  hear  it  loudly  proclaimed  in  these  days  that  Gallicanism  is 
the  base-born  offspring  of  a  degenerate  age — a  "  schism  in  dis- 
guise " — an  outbreak  of  the  spirit  of  insubordination — inco- 
herent, illogical.  The  reply  to  such  assertions  is  best  made  by 
distinguishing  between  the  apocryphal  version  of  it  which  was 
imposed  upon  the  world  by  despotic  monarchs,  arrogant  ministers, 
and  obsequious  parliaments,  and  that  pure  theological  tradition 
which  was  coeval  with  the  Church  of  France.  Gallicanism  (in 
its  true  sense)  does  not  date  from  the  "  age  of  Louis  XIV."  It 
did  not  originate  with  the  "  Declaration  "  of  1682.  It  was  not 
created  by  the  Concordat  of  Francis  I.  It  was  not  first  formu- 
lated in  the  "  Pragmatic  Sanction  "  of  Bourges.  Nor  was  it  even 
a  happy  invention  of  the  illustrious  Jean  Gerson  and  those  other 
kindred  spirits  who  piloted  the  Church  with  such  consummate 
skill  through  the  shoals  and  quicksands  of  the  "  Great  Schism."  It 
sounds  like  a  truism  to  say  so,  but  the  truism  is  necessary — the 
Gallican  Church  was  always  Gallican.  It  was  not,  indeed, 
always  in  an  attitude  of  active  protest  against  the  supremacy 
of  the  Roman  Pontiff ;  for  that  supremacy,  rightly  understood 
and  administered,  is  an  integral  part  of  the  Gallican  polity. 
But  it  asserted  from  the  beginning  those  great  laws  and  prin- 


INTROD.  ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  GALLICANISM.  15 

ciples,  the  infraction  of  which  in  later  times  led  to  the  diver- 
gence between  the  old  and  the  new  ecclesiastical  discipline.  If 
Gallicans  began  at  a  certain  period  to  dissent  from  Rome,  it  was 
because  Rome  at  that  period  had  become  other  than  she  was. 
Ultramontanism,  not  Gallicanism,  was  the  innovation.  The 
Papacy,  in  the  shape  which  it  now  wears,  is  only  defensible  on 
the  plea  that  the  original  laws  of  the  Christian  kingdom  are 
subject  to  development — or  rather  transformation — according  to 
the  presumed  needs  of  successive  ages.  Gallicanism  is  a  per- 
petual appeal  to  those  same  laws  before  the  evolutionary  process 
commenced.  In  other  words,  it  is  an  appeal  to  the  judgment 
and  practice  of  the  primitive  Church.  But  there  are  those  who 
would  fain  identify  it  with  a  system  by  which,  in  comparatively 
recent  times,  the  Church  was  robbed  of  her  dearest  prero- 
gatives ;  by  which  the  free  election  of  her  bishops  was  abrogated, 
the  voice  of  her  Legislative  Councils  silenced,  her  judicial  and 
disciplinary  authority  annulled.  This  was  neither  genuine 
Gallicanism  nor  genuine  Christianity.  According  to  Gallican 
theology,  it  is  no  less,  but  rather  far  more,  repugnant  to  the 
spirit  of  the  Gospel  that  the  Church  should  be  subjected,  within 
the  sphere  of  her  divinely-ordained  functions,  to  the  arbitrary 
dictation  of  kings  and  parliaments,  than  that  she  should  be 
ruled  by  the  irresponsible  will  of  her  chief  Bishop.  The 
Church's  "liberty",  has  always  consisted,  and  must  for  ever 
consist,  in  being  governed  by  her  own  canonical  legislation ;  in 
the  equitable  administration  of  that  sacred  code  by  the  Epis- 
copate ;  and  in  its  being  frankly  recognized  and  effectually  pro- 
tected by  the  civil  power. 

Once  more,  then,  the  reader  is  warned  against  the  stratagem, 
now  so  commonly  practised,  of  representing  Gallicanism  as  a 
mere  modern  expedient  for  converting  the  Church  into  a  hire- 
ling and  a  bondslave  to  the  State.  It  is  true  that,  under  the 
pseudonym  of  Gallicanism,  the  ancient  independence  of  the 
Church  in  its  relations  to  the  State  was  practically  subverted ; 
but  Gallicanism  is  not  answerable  for  this  monstrous  perversion 
of  its  principles.  "  Look  on  this  picture  and  on  that."  Compare 
the  portrait  drawn  by  Pierre  Pithou  at  the  close  of  the  sixteenth 
century  with  the  cherished  ideal  of  such  men  as  Hincmar  of 
Reims,  Ivo  of  Chartres,  Agobard  of  Lyons,  and  Bernard  of 
Clairvaux.  The  one  is  a  caricature  of  the  other.  The  great 


16  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  INTBOD. 

mediaeval  doctors  rest  their  cause  on  principles  which  date  from 
the  very  foundation  of  the  "  City  of  Grod,"  and  which  are  there- 
fore opposed  alike  to  Papal  and  to  secular  Caesarism.  The 
modern  programme  is  virtually  an  abnegation  of  the  most  impor- 
tant of  those  principles,  forced  upon  the  Church  by  the  unscru- 
pulous aggressions  of  the  State. 

The  gradual  metamorphosis  of  the  Gallicanism  of  the  primitive 
type  into  the  hybrid  system  which  latterly  usurped  its  name — 
and  which  was  not  far  removed  from  sheer  Erastianism — is  to  be 
traced  amid  the  vicissitudes  of  many  centuries.  Some  account 
of  it  will  be  attempted  in  the  course  of  the  present  work.  The 
author  does  not  pretend,  however,  to  furnish  a  complete  expla- 
nation of  a  series  of  transactions  which,  in  many  instances,  were 
carefully  masked  under  a  veil  of  plausible  deception,  and  which 
have  been  involved  in  further  obscurity  by  conflicting  historical 
testimony.  There  are  problems  connected  with  the  fortunes  of 
the  Church  in  France  which  probably  will  never  be  solved  with 
absolute  certainty  so  long  as  the  world  lasts. 

in. 

The  Church  of  France  was  distinguished  for  many  ages  by  its 
zeal  for  the  independence  and  purity  of  ecclesiastical  elections. 
Under  the  first  and  second  Frankish  dynasties  the  Church  was 
the  main  source  and  principle  of  civilization  —  the  dominant 
power  of  society.  All  important  acts  of  legislation  emanated 
from  its  Councils.  Its  prelates  were  Ministers  of  State ;  its  priests 
were  civil  magistrates ;  justice  was  ordinarily  dispensed  through 
its  tribunals.  Church  and  State  were  in  fact  so  intimately 
blended,  as  to  be  scarcely  distinguishable  the  one  from  the  other. 
During  this  period,  the  right  of  the  Church  to  freedom  of  action 
in  the  choice  of  its  chief  pastors  was  fully  admitted  in  theory ; 
and  elections  to  the  episcopate  were  made,  according  to  primitive 
usage,  by  the  suffrages  of  the  clergy  and  faithful  laity  of  the  dio- 
cese ;  subject  always  to  the  regulations  of  the  canons,  and  to  the 
approval  of  the  sovereign.  It  is  true  that  this  practice  was  often 
interfered  with,  especially  under  the  later  Merovingian  princes ; 
but  such  cases  were  exceptions  and  abuses.  Freedom  of  election 
was  the  universally  acknowledged  ride,  and  was  more  or  less 
exactly  followed  until  after  the  fall  of  the  Carlovingian  Empire. 


IXTBOD.         EARLY  COUNCILS  ON  EPISCOPAL  ELECTIONS.         17 


Thus,  for  example,  the  First  Council  of  Auvergne,*  A.D.  535, 
expressly  condemns  any  attempt  to  attain  the  episcopal  dignity 
through  the  favour  and  patronage  of  princes,  rather  than  by 
personal  merit  and  the  universal  suffrage  of  the  faithful.  The 
Fifth  Council  of  Orleans,  in  549,  decrees  that  bishops  shall  be 
chosen,  with  the  consent  of  the  king,  by  the  votes  of  the  clergy 
and  people,  as  enjoined  by  the  ancient  canons ;  and  thereupon 
consecrated  by  the  Metropolitan  and  his  comprovincials.  "  Let 
it  not  be  lawful  for  any  one  to  obtain  the  episcopate  by  means  of 
bribery  or  simoniacal  contract.  Let  no  man  be  appointed  bishop 
over  an  unwilling  flock;  nor  let  any  pressure  be  exercised  by 
persons  in  authority,  to  procure  the  consent  either  of  citizens  or 
of  clergy, — a  thing  shameful  to  speak  of.  If  any  such  case  should 
occur,  let  the  bishop  who  has  thus  been  ordained  through 
violence,  rather  than  by  legitimate  decree,  be  for  ever  deposed 
from  the  pontifical  dignity."  f  The  Fifth  Synod  of  Paris, 
A.D.  557,  enacts  in  its  eighth  canon,  that  the  election  of  bishops 
shall  be  conducted  freely  by  the  clergy  and  people ;  that  no  one 
shall  be  intruded  into  a  see  by  the  command  of  the  sovereign, 
or  without  the  consent  of  the  Metropolitan  and  comprovincials ; 
that  if  any  one  shall  venture  to  assume  the  episcopal  dignity  in 
virtue  of  a  royal  nomination,  he  shall  not  be  recognized  as  bishop 
by  the  prelates  of  the  province.^  Again,  it  was  declared  by  the 
great  National  Synod  held  at  Paris  in  615,  under  Clothaire  II., 
that  episcopal  elections  made  without  consent  of  the  Metro- 
politan, the  comprovincials,  the  clergy  and  laity  of  the  diocese, 
as  also  those  obtained  through  violence,  intrigue,  or  simony,  are 
absolutely  null  and  void.  The  king,  by  an  edict,  confirmed  this 


*  Condi.  Arvernense  J.,  apud  Sirm., 
Cone.  Antiq.  Gall.,  torn.  i.  p.  242.  See 
also  Concil.  Aurelian.  III.,  A.D.  538, 
Canon  3 :  "  Ipse  Metropolitans  a  com- 
provincialibus  episcopis,  sicut  decreta 
Sedis  Apostolicse  continent,  cum  con- 
sensu  cleri  vel  civium,  eligatur ;  quia 
sequum  est,  sicut  ipsa  sedes  Apostolica 
dixit,  ut  qui  prseponendus  est  omnibus, 
ab  omnibus  eligatur.  De  compro- 
vincialibus  vero  ordinandis,  cum  con- 
sensu  Metropolitan!,  cleri,  et  civiuin, 
juxta  priorum  canouum  statuta,  electio 
et  voluntas  requiratur."  It  was  S.  Leo, 
in  one  of  his  epistles  to  the  bishops  of 

VOL.  I. 


the  province  of  Vienne,  who  pronounced 
the  celebrated  dictum  here  referred  to. 
"  Per  pacem  et  quietem  Sacerdotes  qui 
prsefuturi  sunt  postulentur.  Teneatur 
subscriptio  clericorurn,  honoratorum 
testimonium,  ordinis  consensus,  et  ple- 
bis.  Qui  praefuturus  est  omnibus,  ab 
omnibus  eligatur.'' 

t  Concil.  Aurel.  V.,  Canon  X.  Sir- 
mond.,  Cone.  Antiq.  Gall.,  torn.  i. 

J  Labbe,  Concil.,  torn.  v.  p.  814.  "  Si 
absque  electione  Metropolitan!,  cleri 
consensu,  vel  civium,  fuerit  in  ecclesiS, 
intromissus,  ordinatio  ipsius,  sccundum 
Patrum  statute,  irrita  habeatur." 

C 


18 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


INTROD. 


canon;  adding,  however,  a  clause  to  the  effect  that  the  crown 
was  to  authorise  the  act  of  consecration.* 

The  same  rule  prevailed  under  the  Carlovingian  dynasty.  It 
was  frequently  infringed,  indeed,  by  Charlemagne,  who,  in  virtue 
of  the  quasi-ecclesiastical  character  which  he  assumed  under  the 
express  sanction  of  the  Holy  See,t  exercised  supreme  control 
over  the  whole  external  administration  of  the  Church.  But  the 
right  of  canonical  election  is  explicitly  affirmed  by  this  monarch 
in  a  capitulary  of  the  year  803.  "Being  not  ignorant  of  the 
sacred  canons,  in  order  that  in  the  name  of  God  Holy  Church 
may  the  more  freely  enjoy  her  just  privileges,  we  have  signified 
our  consent  to  the  ecclesiastical  order,  that  bishops  shall  be 
elected  by  the  choice  of  the  clergy  and  people,  according  to  the 
canons,  from  the  diocese  where  the  vacancy  occurs,  without 
respect  of  persons  or  gift  of  presents,  on  the  sole  ground  of 
meritorious  life  and  pre-eminent  wisdom."  J  This  capitulary  was 
republished  verbatim  by  Louis  le  Debonnaire  soon  after  his  acces- 
sion^ In  process  of  time  it  became  customary  to  solicit  from 
the  crown  permission  to  proceed  to  an  election ;  and  an  officer, 
called  the  Visitor,  usually  one  of  the  bishops  of  the  province, 
was  appointed  to  preside  over  the  proceedings,  and  make  a 
report  on  the  event  to  the  Metropolitan ;  the  latter,  in  his  turn, 
giving  information  to  the  king.  If  the  Visitor  reported  that  the 
election  had  been  misconducted — that  there  had  been  bribery, 
simony,  violence,  or  the  like — the  nomination  became  void,  and 
the  patronage,  for  that  time,  devolved  upon  the  crown.  || 

The  way  was  thus  opened  for  a  further  extension  of  the  royal 
prerogative  with  respect  to  the  disposal  of  the  highest  ecclesias- 
tical dignities.  It  appears  that,  under  the  later  Carlovingians, 
the  practice  of  applying  to  the  crown  for  license  to  elect  led  to 
that  of  royal  recommendations  of  the  individual  to  be  elected. 
Persons  in  office  about  the  court,  the  relatives  of  the  nobility,  of 


*  "Si  persona  condigna  fuerit,  per 
ordinationem  Priucipis  ordinetur." — 
Labbe,  Condi.,  torn.  v.  p.  1649.  Of. 
Thomassin,  Vet.  et  Nov.  Eccles.  Discip., 
II.,  Lib.  ii,  cap.  13. 

t  Charlemagne  often  describes  him- 
self in  his  Capitularies  as  "devotus 
sanctse  Ecclesise  defensor,  atque  adjutor 
in  omnibus  Apostolicse  sedis." 


t  Baluz.,  Capit.  Beg.  Franc.,  torn.  i. 
p.  379.  This  capitulary  is  inserted  in 
the  Decretum  of  Gratian,  Dist.  Ixiii. 
cap.  34,  Sacrorum. 

§  A.D.  816.  Sirmond,  Cone.  Antiq.  Gal- 
lise,  torn.  ii.  p.  429. 

||  Thomassin,  Vet.  et  Nov.  Eccks. 
Discip.,  II.  Lib.  ii.  cap.  21,  §  9. 


INTROD.  CHANGES  UNDER  FEUDAL  SYSTEM.  19 

military  chiefs,  and  other  powerful  retainers,  naturally  obtained 
the  preference ;  and  it  required  more  courage  than  the  electors 
possessed  to  reject  candidates  so  protected,  however  slenderly 
they  might  be  furnished  with  personal  qualifications.  Abuses 
thus  arose,  which  were  exposed  and  resisted  with  undaunted  re- 
solution by  the  famous  Hincmar,  Archbishop  of  Reims.  On  one 
occasion  that  prelate  remonstrated  in  the  plainest  language  with 
Louis  III.,  in  whose  name  an  unworthy  pastor  had  been  intruded 
into  the  episcopate ;  bidding  him  not  to  imagine  that  when  per- 
mission was  requested  from  the  sovereign  to  proceed  to  an 
election,  it  followed  that  the  bishops,  clergy,  and  people  were 
bound  to  fix  upon  the  person  whom  he  had  thought  fit  to  nomi- 
nate. "This,"  said  the  archbishop,  "would  be  no  election 
according  to  the  terms  of  the  Divine  law,  but  a  lawless  usurpation 
of  human  power.*  And  if  the  circumstances  be  such  as  I  have 
heard,  without  doubt  the  same  malignant  spirit  who,  in  the  guise 
of  a  serpent,  deceived  our  first  parents  and  caused  the  loss  of 
paradise,  has  by  means  of  similar  flatterers  whispered  these 
delusions  in  your  ear."  f 

The  development  of  Feudalism  brought  with  it  important 
innovations  affecting  the  hierarchy  of  the  Church.  Bishops, 
abbots,  and  all  the  higher  dignitaries,  became,  in  respect  of  their 
large  landed  possessions,  feudatories  to  the  crown  and  other 
secular  suzerains ;  and  as  such,  liable  to  the  charges  imposed  on 
territorial  property  by  feudal  law.  Certain  prelates,  holding 
estates  in  the  "domaine  royal,"  were  invested  with  temporal 
peerages.  The  Archbishop  of  Reims,  the  bishops  of  Laon  and 
Langres,  were  created  dukes ;  the  bishops  of  Beauvais,  Noyon, 
Chalons  sur  Marne,  obtained  the  title  of  count.  The  Bishop  of 
Senlis,  also,  was  at  one  period  a  peer  of  France.  Next  in  order 
came  the  prelates  who  held  fiefs  of  the  dukes  of  Normandy, 
Britanny,  Burgundy,  or  of  the  counts  of  Champagne,  Flanders, 
and  Toulouse ;  these,  in  feudal  language,  were  "arriere-vassaux" 
of  the  crown.  Lower  in  the  scale  were  the  abbots — regular, 
secular,  and  commendatory  —  most  of  whom  enjoyed  feudal 
baronies. 

The  six  great  ecclesiastical  peers  took  precedence  of  all  other 


*  "  Quse  non  est  Divinse  legis  electio, 
sed  humanse  potestatis  extoreio." 
t  Hincmar,  Epist.  six.  (Migne,  Pa- 


troloy.,  torn,  cxxvi.  p.  111.)  Thomassin, 
Vet.  et  Nov.  Eccles.  Discip.,  IT.  Tab.  ii., 


c.  23,  §  3. 


C   2 


20  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  INTBOD- 

prelates,  and  of  all  lay  peers  except  the  princes  of  the  blood 
royal.  They  possessed  seats  and  votes  in  the  Parliament  of 
Paris,  since  that  court  was  held  to  represent  the  ancient  court 
of  Peers,  originally  the  supreme  tribunal  of  the  monarchy.  The 
abbots  of  Cluny  and  of  St.  Denis  "  en  France  "  were  also  mem- 
bers ex  officio  of  the  Parliament  of  Paris.* 

All  these  clerical  potentates  were  entitled  to  exercise  the 
rights  of  sovereignty  within  the  limits  of  their  own  territories ; 
to  coin  money,  impose  taxes,  make  laws,  declare  war  and  peace, 
and  administer  justice  by  their  local  courts  and  officers.  Con- 
sidering the  vasj  extent  of  their  civil  and  political  powers,  it  was 
essential  to  discover  some  expedient  by  which  they  might  be 
kept  in  due  subordination  and  allegiance  to  the  crown.  For  this 
purpose  advantage  was  taken  of  the  feudal  ceremony  of  investi- 
ture. The  oath  of  homage  was  exacted  from  the  holders  of 
spiritual  fiefs,  as  from  all  other  vassals ;  and  when  the  new  pre- 
late had  thus  pledged  his  fealty  to  his  suzerain,  the  latter  granted 
to  him  the  investiture  of  his  fief,  by  delivering  to  him  the  crozier 
and  the  ring.  These,  however,  were  the  appropriate  ensigns,  not 
of  temporal  dignity,  but  of  the  pastoral  office.  It  was  a  plau- 
sible proceeding  in  appearance,  but  in  reality  it  carried  with  it  a 
most  dangerous  invasion  of  the  liberties,  and  even  of  the  consti- 
tution, of  the  Church.  For  it  implied,  in  the  first  place,  that  the 
nomination  to  the  highest  ecclesiastical  dignities  formed  part  of 
the  inherent  prerogative  of  the  crown ;  and  the  right  of  free 
election  by  the  clergy  and  people  was  thus  ignored.  But  fur- 
ther, it  suggested  the  idea  that  investiture  conferred,  not  only  the 
episcopal  status  in  the  feudal  hierarchy,  but  also  the  episcopal 
office;  i.  e.  that  lay  hands  conveyed  a  purely  spiritual  jurisdiction. 
It  was  from  the  prevalence  of  such  grave  misconceptions  that 
the  celebrated  contest  arose  in  the  eleventh  century,  known  as 
the  "  War  of  Investitures." 

During  this  great  struggle  (the  course  of  which  was  far  less 
violent,  however,  in  France  than  elsewhere)  the  Gallican  Church 
vindicated  its  rights  with  courage,  and  on  the  whole  with  success. 
Gallican  divines  seem  to  have  admitted  that  the  sovereign  was 
entitled  to  confer  on  bishops  the  investiture  of  their  temporal 
fiefs  held  of  the  crown,  provided  that  the  ecclesiastical  election 


*  Of.  Thomasein,  Vet.  et  Nov.  Ecdes.  Discip.,  III.  Lib.  i.  capp.  30,  31. 


INTBOD. 


ROYAL  INVESTITURE. 


21 


and  consecration  had  taken  place  previously  ;  and  provided,  also, 
that  the  oath  exacted  was  that  of  "hommage  simple,"  not  of 
"hommage  lige."  These  conditions,  it  was  held,  sufficiently 
excluded  the  notion  that  lay  investiture  had  any  share  in  the 
transmission  of  the  spiritual  powers  of  the  episcopate.  Such  was 
the  view  taken  by  the  great  canonist  Ivo,  Bishop  of  Chartres, 
as  appears  from  his  correspondence  with  the  Papal  Legate 
Hugues,  Archbishop  of  Lyons;*  and  again,  by  Hugues  de 
Fleury,  in  his  treatise  "De  regia  potestate  et  sacerdotali 
dignitate."  t 

The  practice,  thus  guarded  and  limited,  became  eventually 
prevalent  in  France.  The  Bishop  was  first  canonically  elected ; 
the  election  was  then  published,  and  confirmed  by  the  Metro- 
politan ;  J  then  followed  the  consecration  ;  and  lastly,  the  new 
prelate  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  sovereign,  upon 
which  he  was  put  into  possession  of  the  temporalities  of  his  see. 
This  order  was  indeed  violated  in  later  times  as  to  one  most 
important  particular.  When  the  Crown  had  succeeded  in  mono- 
polizing the  patronage  of  the  higher  Church  dignities,  the  oath 
of  homage  was  commonly  made  to  precede,  instead  of  following, 
the  act  of  consecration ; — an  abuse  against  which  the  French 
clergy  did  not  fail  to  protest  on  various  occasions.  § 

In  the  course  of  this  agitating  controversy,  the  cause  of 
ecclesiastical  independence  was  resolutely  defended  by  several 
great  Councils  held  in  France : — at  Clermont,  in  1095,  in  the 


*  Ivon.,  Episc.  Carnot.,  Epist.  Ix.  (ap. 
Migne,  Patrolog.,  torn.  162,  p.  73.)  Of. 
Thomassin,  Vet.  et  Nov.  Eccles,  Discip., 
II.  Lib.  ii.  cap.  32. 

f  "  Hex  instinctu  Spiritus  sancti  po- 
test,  sicut  existimo,  praesulatus  honorem 
religiose  clerico  tribuere ;  animarum 
vero  curam  Archiepiscopus  debet  ei 
committere.  Post  electionem  autem, 
non  annulum  aut  baculuin  a  manu  regia, 
sed  investituram  rerum  ssecularium 
electus  antistes  debet  suscipere,  et  in 
suis  ordinibus  per  annulum  aut  baculum 
animarum  curam  ab  archiepiscopo  suo, 
ut  negotium  hujusmodi  sine  discepta- 
tione  peragatur,  et  terrenis  et  spiritali- 
bus  potestatibus  suse  auctoritatis  privi- 
legium  conservetur.  Quod  si  regulariter 
fuerit  conservatum,  implebitur  illud 
quod  Salvator  noster  in  evangel  io  prse- 


cipiens  dicit,  "  Eeddite  quse  sunt  Csesaris 
Caesari,  et  quae  sunt  Dei  Deo."  Hugon. 
Floriac.,  Tractatus  de  regia  potestate  et 
sacerdotali  dignitate,  apud  Baluz.,  Mis- 
cellan.,  torn.  ii.  p.  184. 

J  Thomassin.,  Vet.  ^et  Nov.  Eccles. 
Discip.,  II.  Lib.  ii.  cap.  18.  Metropo- 
litans were  confirmed  by  the  Pro- 
vincial Council,  Ib.  cap.  19,  No.  9,  12. 
But  from  the  time  of  Charlemagne  the 
custom  began  to  prevail  of  seeking 
confirmation  from  tlie  Pope ;  an  abuse 
which  arose,  like  many  others,  from 
disputes  which  could  not  be  settled 
without  reference  to  Eome,  and  from 
laxity  and  negligence  on  the  part  of 
the  local  episcopate. 

§  See  the  official  collection  entitled 
Me'moires  du  Clerge"  de  France,  torn.  xi. 
p.  1083  et  seqq. 


22  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  INTBOD. 

presence  of  Pope  Urban  II. ;  at  Troyes,  in  1107,  under  Pope 
Paschal  II.  in  person;  at  Vienne,  in  Dauphine,  in  1112,  where 
the  bishops  repudiated  the  pusillanimous  concessions  of  Paschal 
to  the  Emperor  Henry  V.  ;*  and  at  Eeims,in  1119,  where  Pope 
Calixtus  II.,  at  the  head  of  thirteen  archbishops  and  more  than 
two  hundred  bishops,  prohibited  all  investitures  at  the  hands  of 
laymen.  This  last  imposing  exhibition  contributed  probably  to 
bring  about  the  compromise  called  the  "  Concordat  of  Worms," 
which  shortly  afterwards  terminated  the  strife. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  system  of 
ecclesiastical  elections  underwent  a  still  further  modification. 
From  the  time  when  the  election  of  the  sovereign  Pontiff  was 
restricted  to  the  College  of  Cardinals,  the  Cathedral  Chapters 
laid  claim  to  the  exercise  of  a  corresponding  privilege  in  the 
choice  of  their  diocesans,  to  the  exclusion  not  only  of  the  laity, 
but  of  the  parochial  clergy.  |  This  assumption  was  ratified  in 
express  terms  by  the  24th  Canon  of  the  great  Lateran  Council, 
in  1215 ;  |  and  the  right  was  generally  recognized  thence- 
forward as  belonging  to  the  capitular  bodies.  The  elections 
were  made  by  three  different  forms  of  procedure — by  "  inspira- 
tion," by  "compromise,"  or  by  "scrutiny;" — terms  borrowed 
from  those  in  use  in  the  Roman  conclave.  The  choice  of  the 
Chapter  was  then  confirmed  by  the  Metropolitan,  with  an  appeal, 
in  case  of  dispute,  to  the  Pope.§  This  practice  continued  during 
the  greater  part  of  three  centuries ;  but  it  was  subject  to  frequent 
interruptions,  and  was  attended  with  serious  evils.  On  the  one 
hand,  gross  unblushing  simony  was  induced  by  the  perpetual 
intervention  of  the  Crown  in  favour  of  its  own  candidates ;  while 
on  the  other,  appeals  to  Rome  became  so  common,  on  the  ground 
of  alleged  informality  or  defect  in  the  elections,  that  the  patronage 
in  numberless  instances  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Pope. 
By  means  of  "  devolutions,"  "  reserves,"  "  apostolical  mandates," 


*  De  Marca,  Concord.,  Lib.  iv.  cap. 
8,  §  7.  It  was  on  this  occasion  that  the 
Galilean  prelates,  demanding  from  Pope 
Paschal  the  confirmation  of  their  con- 
ciliar  decision,  made  the  celebrated 
declaration,  "  Si,  quod  minime  credi- 
iiiUB,  nostriB  paternitatis  assertiones 
roborare  nolueritis,  propitius  sit  nobis 
Deus,  quia  nos  a  vestra  obedientia 


repelletis."  —  Labbe,  Condi.,  torn.  x. 
p.  785. 

t  De  Marca,  Concord.  Sac.  et  Imp., 
Lib.  viii.  cap.  2,  §  9. 

$  Condi  Lateran.  IV.,  Can.  XXIV., 
Quia  propter.  Extrav.  de  Electione. 

§  Thomassin,  Vet.  et  Nov.  Eccles. 
Discip.,  II.  Lib.  ii.  cap.  33. 


INTBOD.  PRAGMATIC  SANCTION  OF  S.  LOUIS.  23 

"  expective  graces,"  *  and  other  specious  expedients,  the  Court 
of  Rome  gradually  acquired  a  predominant  influence  in  the 
disposal  of  all  the  higher  preferments  in  France.f 

The  first  attempt  of  any  importance  to  apply  a  remedy  to  these 
anomalies  was  made  by  St.  Louis ;  who,  in  the  year  1268,  pro- 
mulgated his  famous  Ordonnance  called  the  Pragmatic  Sanc- 
tion.! That  monarch,  though  a  devoted  son  of  the  Church,  full 
of  affectionate  veneration  for  the  Holy  See,  did  not  hesitate  to 
insert  in  this  remarkable  statute  provisions  aimed  directly  against 
notorious  evils  which  had  arisen  from  Papal  usurpation ;  and 
claimed  both  for  Church  and  State  in  France  a  certain  character 
of  independent  nationality.  The  Pragmatic  Sanction  of  St.  Louis 
has  been  styled  "  the  foundation  stone  of  the  Gallican  liberties."  § 
It  is  comprised  in  six  articles.  The  first  declares  that  the 
prelates,  patrons,  and  ordinary  collators  to  benefices  in  the  king- 
dom shall  fully  enjoy  their  rights,  and  that  the  jurisdiction 
lawfully  belonging  to  each  shall  be  maintained.  The  second 
guarantees  to  cathedral  churches  the  right  of  free  episcopal 
election.  The  third  directs  that  the  "pestilential  crime  of 
simony  "  be  altogether  banished  (penitus  eliminandum)  from  the 
kingdom.  The  fourth  ordains  that  ecclesiastical  promotions  and 
appointments  of  whatever  kind  be  made  conformably  to  the 
common  law,  the  canons  of  Councils,  and  the  ancient  institutions 
of  the  Fathers.  ||  The  fifth  prohibits  the  heavy  pecuniary 
burdens  imposed  by  the  Eoman  Court  upon  the  Church  of 
France,  "whereby  our  kingdom  has  been  lamentably  impo- 
verished;" and  provides  "that  none  shall  be  hereafter  levied, 
unless  for  a  reasonable,  pious,  urgent,  and  indispensable  ne- 
cessity, and  with  the  free  consent  of  the  king  and  the  said 


*  "  Devolutiou  "  signifies  the  lapse 
of  a  benefice  to  the  Pope,  by  reason  of 
failure  on  the  part  of  the  patron  to 
present  a  clerk  duly  qualified.  By 
"  reserves  "  the  Pope  appropriated  to 
himself  certain  nominations,  either  in 
particular  cases,  for  a  particular  period, 
or  in  particular  countries.  An  "  Apos- 
tolicjil  mandate"  was  a  brief  addressed 
to  a  Cathedral  chapter,  directing  that  a 
vacant  canonry  or  other  dignity  should 
be  bestowed  on  the  person  therein 


sentations  to  benefices  not  yet  vacant. 

f  Thomassin,  Vet.  et  Nov.  Eccles. 
discip.,  II.  Lib.  ii.  cap.  31,  §  9. 

J  Ordonnances  des  Hois,  torn.  i.  p.  97. 
The  authenticity  of  this  edict  has  been 
contested  ;  but  it  is  clearly  established 
by  Edm.  Richer,  Hist.  Cone.  Gen.,  Lib. 
ii.  p.  189. 

§  Pasquier,  Becherches  de  la  France, 
torn.  iii.  c.  22. 

||  Such,  in  the  judgment  of  S.  Louis 
and  his  advisers  was  the  true  fouuda- 


named.     "  Graces   expectatives  "  (gra-  I    tion  of  ecclesiastical  "  liberty." 
tise  expectativaj)  were  prospective  pro- 


24  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  INTROD. 

Church  of  France."  By  the  sixth  and  last  article,  the  king 
"  renews,  approves,  and  confirms  all  the  franchises,  prerogatives, 
rights,  and  privileges  granted  by  himself  and  his  predecessors 
to  the  churches,  monasteries,  religious  orders,  and  ecclesiastics 
of  the  realm." 

But  the  legislation  of  St.  Louis — honourable  as  it  was  to  his 
own  motives  and  character — produced  little  or  no  permanent 
effect.  Unworthy  intrigue,  simoniacal  corruption,  bitter  dissen- 
sion, even  tumultuous  violence,  became  matters  of  common 
scandal  in  the  capitular  elections.  The  interference  of  Home 
was  perpetually  invoked  in  contested  cases ;  and  it  was  this  that 
led  by  degrees  to  the  practice  of  reserving  to  the  Pope  the  pre- 
sentation to  certain  benefices,  and  to  various  other  methods  of 
alienating  preferment  from  the  lawful  patrons.  Pontiffs  of  the 
stamp  of  Boniface  VIII.  and  John  XXII.  usurped  as  a  right  what 
their  predecessors  had  resorted  to  only  under  circumstances  of 
exceptional  urgency,  for  the  purpose  of  redressing  abuses  which 
were  bringing  the  Church  into  disgrace  and  contempt. 

IV. 

A  second  principle  affirmed  with  marked  emphasis  from  time 
to  time  by  the  Gallican  Church  was  that  of  the  independence  of 
its  local  Councils,  and  the  free  exercise  of  canonical  Jurisdiction 
by  its  Metropolitans.  In  no  part  of  the  Christian  world  have 
Councils  been  more  frequent  than  in  the  Church  of  France ; 
a  circumstance  highly  favourable,  at  first  sight,  to  its  disciplinary 
condition,  inasmuch  as  it  is  by  Councils  that  the  Church  speaks, 
acts,  and  judges,  in  its  corporate  capacity.  But  it  will  be  found  on 
examination  that  their  character  and  mode  of  action  varied  ma- 
terially from  age  to  age ;  and  that  their  history,  as  a  whole,  pre- 
sents a  faithful  epitome  of  the  fluctuating  fortunes  of  the  Church, 
in  its  relations  to  the  Eoman  supremacy  on  one  side,  and  to  the 
domination  of  the  civil  authority  on  the  other.  In  early  times, 
while  complete  harmony  and  union  prevailed  between  Church 
and  State,  Gallican  synods  were  energetic,  vigilant,  and  influ- 
ential. But  to  this  palmy  period  succeeded  one  of  lamentable 
laxity,  which  continued  till  the  ignominious  downfall  of  the 
first  Frankish  dynasty.  Under  the  "  rois  faineants"  synods  were 
gradually  disused,  and  the  functions  of  Metropolitans  became 


INTROD.  DIOCESAN  AND  PROVINCIAL  SYNODS.  25 

almost  extinct.  A  brief  resuscitation  followed  under  the 
Carlovingiaus ;  but  at  a  later  date,  when  their  empire  began  to 
sink  into  decay,  the  legislative  system  of  the  Church  was  fatally 
attacked  by  the  innovating  policy  of  Home,  which  reduced 
Councils  into  dependence  on  the  arbitrary  will  of  the  Pope,  and 
sapped  their  authority  through  the  abuse  of  the  privilege  of 
appeals.  At  length  the  spirit  of  medievalism  was  compelled  to 
yield  to  the  steadily-sustained  aggression  of  the  French  monarchs 
of  the  "third  race ; "  and  in  the  sixteenth  century  Gallican  synods 
underwent  a  change  of  organization  so  essential,  that,  although 
the  clergy  were  still  permitted  to  assemble  by  representation, 
their  meetings  lost  their  original  designation,  which  indeed  would 
have  been  a  misnomer  under  such  circumstances.  The  Pope  had 
enslaved  the  Councils  of  the  Church ;  the  Crown  suppressed  them. 

Diocesan  Synods — consisting  of  the  clergy  of  a  single  diocese 
under  the  presidency  of  the  bishop — were  held  originally  twice  in 
the  year,  in  spring  and  autumn ;  in  later  times  only  once  a  year. 
Provincial  Synods,  consisting  of  the  Metropolitan  and  Compro- 
vincial bishops,  together  with  some  few  clergy  of  the  second 
order  selected  by  them,*  were  in  like  manner  celebrated  in  the 
early  ages  twice  every  year,  as  ordered  by  the  canon  of  Nicsea  ; 
apparently  without  interference  on  the  part  of  the  secular 
Government,  either  in  convoking  or  confirming  them.  The 
Provincial  Council,  according  to  the  invariable  Gallican  tradi- 
tion, was  the  ordinary  tribunal  for  the  decision  of  all  ecclesiastical 
causes ;  it  was  the  court  of  appeal  from  Diocesan  synods,  and 
appeal  from  it  was  allowed,  in  certain  cases  and  under  well- 
defined  restrictions,  to  the  Roman  See.  Yet  in  process  of  time, 
through  the  same  conflicting  influences  which  proved  successful 
in  annulling  the  freedom  of  elections,  this  great  and  wise  insti- 
tution of  antiquity  fell  into  disuse  in  France.  The  clergy 
urgently  and  constantly  petitioned  for  its  restoration,  and  some- 
times with  partial  success  ;  but  it  was  never  permanently 
re-established. 

A  third  form  of  ecclesiastical  assembly  obtained  from  a  very 


*  It  would  seem,  however,  that  pres- 
byters were  present  only  as  the  substi- 
tutes of  bishops  who  were  unable  to 
attend.  Thomassin,  Vet.  et  Nov.  Eccl. 
Di»cip.,  II.  Lib.  iii.  capp.  50,  52,  53. 


The  Second  Council  of  Orleans,  A.D.  533, 
ordered  Provincial  Councils  to  be  held 
once  a  year.  Sirmond.,  Cone.  Ant.  Gall., 
torn.  i.  229. 


26  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  INTBOD. 

early  period,  namely  that  of  the  National  Synod.  These  were 
originally  meetings  of  the  bishops  of  the  seventeen  provinces 
which  formed  the  political  "Diocese  of  Gaul."  Hence  they 
are  alluded  to  in  the  Theodosian  Code  as  "Diocesan  Synods."* 
"A  Diocesan  Synod,"  says  the  commentator  G-odefroi,  "is 
composed  of  prelates  belonging  to  several  provinces,  gathered 
together  under  the  presidency  of  a  patriarch,  primate,  or 
exarch.  These  Councils,"  he  continues,  "are  called  Universal. 
Such  were  those  of  Africa,  of  Gaul,  of  Spain,  of  Britain,  and  the 
like."  From  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century  the  Gallican 
episcopate  was  accustomed  thus  to  meet  in  synod  for  the  dis- 
patch of  ecclesiastical  affairs,  under  the  direct  sanction  and 
summons  of  the  Imperial  Government.  Such  were  the  Synod 
of  Aries  in  353  ;  of  Beziers  two  years  afterwards ;  of  Paris  in 
362 ;  of  Valence  in  374 ;  of  Bordeaux  in  385 ;  of  Treves  in  386.  t 
An  Imperial  rescript  was  addressed  to  the  Patriarch,  Primate, 
or  Metropolitan,  who  thereupon  cited  the  prelates  within  his 
jurisdiction  to  attend  at  a  given  time  and  place.J  But  these 
larger  gatherings  by  no  means  superseded  or  obstructed  the 
celebration  of  Diocesan  and  Provincial  Councils.  On  the  con- 
trary, they  enforced  them  as  essential  to  sound  discipline,  and 
enjoined  them  on  the  bishops  under  severe  penalties.§ 

During  the  decline  of  the  Empire,  the  power  of  convoking 
these  national  Councils  was  claimed  by  the  Metropolitan  Bishops 
of  Aries,  to  which  city  the  seat  of  civil  government  had  been 
transferred  on  the  destruction  of  Treves  by  the  Vandals.  The 
ambitious  Hilary  insisted  upon  this,  among  other  prerogatives, 
as  belonging  to  his  See,  and  induced  the  Second  Council  of  Aries 
to  pass  a  canon  to  that  effect.  ||  Pope  Hilarius,  in  462,  expressly 
conferred  the  right  of  summoning  Councils  on  Leontius,  Bishop 
of  Aries  ;  Pope  Symmachus  made  a  similar  decree  in  favour  of 
St.  CaBsarius ;  and  again,  Pope  Vigilius  in  favour  of  St.  Aurelian. 
But  the  Barbarian  conquerors,  in  proportion  as  they  made  good 


*  Cod.  Theod.,  Lib.  xvi.  Tit.  n.  §  23. 


Ed.  Hitter. 


t  Thomassin,  Vet.  et  Nov.  Eccl. 
Discipl ,  II.  Lib.  iii.  capp.  45,  49. 

I  De  Marcs,  De  Cone.,  Lib.  yi.  cap. 
17,  §  4 ;  cap.  19,  §  3. 

§  Thomasain,  vbi  supra. 

||  Cone.  Arelat.  II.,  Can.  xviii. :  '•  Ad 


Arelatensis  Episcopi  arbitrium  Synodus 
congreganda ;  ad  quam  urbem  ex  omni- 
bus mundi  partibus,  prsecipue  Galli- 
canis,  sub  sancti  Marini  tempore  legi- 
mus  celebratum  fuisse  concilium  atque 
conventum."  —  Sirmond,  Cone.  Ant. 
Gall.,  torn.  i.  p.  105. 


INTROD. 


NATIONAL  COUNCILS. 


27 


their  footing  in  Gaul,  assumed  the  same  authority  in  eccle- 
siatical  concerns  that  had  been  exercised  by  their  predecessors ; 
and  ere  long  it  was  made  necessary  to  the  holding  of  a  National 
Council  that  their  consent  should  be  first  obtained.  Thus  the 
great  Council  of  Agde  (Agathense)  in  506,  at  which  St.  Caesarius 
presided,  was  celebrated  "  by  permission  of  Alaric  king  of  the 
Visigoths."  Avitus,  Bishop  of  Vienne,  held  the  Council  of  Epaone 
under  the  authority  of  Sigisrnund  king  of  the  Burgundians. 
The  first  Council  of  Orleans  (A.D.  511)  assembled  by  order  of 
Clovis,*  and  presented  its  canons  to  that  prince,  with  a  request 
that  he  would  confirm  and  publish  them  in  his  quality  of  sove- 
reign. The  second  Council  of  Orleans  states  in  like  manner,  in 
the  preface  to  its  Canons,  that  it  was  convened  "  by  command 
of  the  most  glorious  sovereigns  " — i.  e.  of  Theodoric,  Childebert, 
and  Clothaire,  the  sons  of  Clovis.  Sigebert,  King  of  Austrasia, 
in  a  letter  to  Desiderius,  Bishop  of  Chalons,  reproves  the  bishops 
for  having  met  in  synod  without  the  previous  sanction  of  the 
Crown ;  and  intimates  that  such  proceedings  must  not  be 
repeated.  "  Though  desirous  to  respect  the  Canons  and  Consti- 
tutions ecclesiastical,  he  had  determined,  with  the  concurrence 
of  his  nobles,  that  no  Synod  should  be  held  in  his  dominions 
without  his  knowledge.  If  his  permission  were  requested,  and 
sufficient  cause  assigned,  it  would  not  be  refused."  t 

The  records  of  Councils  during  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries, 
and  the  early  part  of  the  seventh,  give  ample  testimony  to  the 
zeal  of  the  Gallican  Episcopate  both  for  exactness  of  discipline 
and  purity  of  doctrine.  The  liberties  of  the  Church  were,  how- 
ever, grievously  invaded  by  the  later  Merovingian  princes ; 
they  violated  the  freedom  of  elections,  set  at  nought  the  decrees 
of  Councils,  practised  simony,  and  encouraged  abuses  which, 
unless  corrected,  would  have  been  fatal  to  the  ecclesiastical 
constitution. 

So  long  as  the  laws  of  the  Church  were  outwardly  respected, 
and  ecclesiastical  authority  was  substantially  upheld  by  the 
civil  ruler,  it  would  seem  that  the  Popes  of  this  period  forbore 
to  meddle  with  the  practice  of  National  Churches  as  to  synods 
and  other  details  of  discipline.  But  when  the  sceptre  had 


*  "Auctore    Deo  et   ex    evocatione 
gloriosissimi  regus  Chlotovechi." 

t  Baluz.,  Capit.  Reg.  Franc.,  toin.  i. 


p.  143.  Preuves  des  Liberty  de  VEgl.  Gal- 
lic., p.  234. 


28  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  ISTBGD. 

fallen  into  the  degenerate  hands  of  the  last  descendants  of  Clovis, 
they  failed  not  to  interpose  with  the  vigour  and  fearlessness 
which  befitted  their  office. 

Thus  Gregory  the  Great,  hearing  that  synods  were  systema- 
tically neglected  in  Austrasia,  wrote  in  strong  language  to  Queen 
Brunechilde,  exhorting  her  to  lose  no  time  in  calling  a  General 
Assembly  of  the  prelates  of  the  realm.  Failing  of  success,  the 
Pontiff  despatched  letters  to  the  Metropolitans  of  Aries,  Lyons, 
Vienne,  and  the  Bishop  of  Autun,*  bidding  them  employ  all  their 
influence  at  court  to  procure  the  required  Council.  Subsequently 
he  appointed  Virgilius,  Bishop  of  Aries,  his  Vicar -General 
throughout  the  empire  of  the  Franks,!  (with  an  express  reser- 
vation, however,  of  the  rights  of  Metropolitans)  and  authorized 
him  to  convoke  bishops  in  Council  for  the  adjudication  of  eccle- 
siastical causes;  enjoining  an  appeal,  in  cases  of  special  diffi- 
culty, to  the  Apostolic  See.  | 

It  will  scarcely  be  denied,  on  a  candid  consideration  of  the 
circumstances,  that  such  action  was  originally  taken  by  the 
Popes  out  of  zeal  for  the  efficient  administration  of  the  Church. 
Contemporary  evidence  shows  that  the  intervention  of  Rome 
was  occasioned  by  the  incapacity  and  unfaithfulness  both  of  the 
civil  authorities  and  of  the  local  episcopate.  It  is  true  that  this 
movement  resulted  eventually  in  a  wider  development  of  the 
power  of  the  Papacy,  both  spiritual  and  temporal;  but  that 
result  cannot  be  ascribed  with  justice  to  a  mere  sordid  love  of 
self-aggrandisement,  or  a  systematic  pursuit  of  power  for  its 
own  sake. 

In  spite  of  all  efforts  and  remonstrances,  few  Councils  were 
held  in  Gaul  during  the  latter  part  of  the  Merovingian  period. 
Only  twenty  are  recorded  during  the  whole  of  the  seventh  cen- 
tury ;  and  through  this  culpable  laxity  on  the  part  of  its  respon- 
sible rulers,  the  Gallo-Frankish  Church  sank  into  a  deplorable 
state  of  corruption  and  decay. § 


*  This  was  Syagrius,  a  prelate  who 
stood  high  in  the  confidence  of  Brune- 
childe. Gregory,  at  her  request,  sent 
him  the  pallium,  and  gave  him  prece- 
dence in  the  province  next  to  the  Metro- 
politan of  Lyons. 

t  Virgilius  seems  to  have  been  the 


disorders  of  the  times  extinguished  not 
only  the  primatial  jurisdicion  of  that 
See,  but  almost  the  entire  system  of 
episcopal  government. 

J  S.  Greg.,  Eegistr.  JEpist.,  Lib.  v., 
Ep.  53,  54,  55 ;  Lib.  ix.  Ep.  106 ;  Lib. 
xi.  Ep.  63.  Edit.  Benedict.,  Paris, 


last  bishop  of  Aries  who  exercised  the   j   1705. 

office  of  Apostolic  Vicar  in  Gaul.    The   '       §  The  following  picture  of  its  con- 


INTROD. 


COUNCILS  UNDER  THE  CARLOVINGIANS. 


29 


The  accession  of  the  Carlovingian  dynasty  brought  with  it  a 
remarkable  revival  of  discipline.  The  "  second  race  "  of  Frank 
sovereigns  formed  an  intimate  alliance  with  the  Koman  Pontiffs ; 
and  the  latter,  perceiving  that  their  acquisition  of  power  might 
prove  of  infinite  service  to  the  Church,  supported  them  with  the 
whole  weight  of  their  authority,  and  invested  them,  in  fact,  with 
functions  which  were  purely  ecclesiastical.  Oarloman,  the  son 
and  successor  of  Charles  Martel,  commenced  the  work  of  reforma- 
tion by  convening  a  National  Council,  known  as  that  "of 
Germany,"  in  the  year  742.*  The  great  S.  Boniface,  archbishop 
of  Mayence,  presided  on  this  occasion,  under  a  special  commis- 
sion as  Legate  from  Pope  Zacharias.t  The  canons  then  enacted 
were  republished  in  the  following  year  at  another  Council  held 
at  Leptines,  also  under  the  presidency  of  S.  Boniface.  The  same 
course  was  pursued  by  Pepin-le-Bref ;  in  whose  reign  the 
Council  of  Vernaf  enjoined  that  two  Assemblies  should  be 
held  every  year ;  the  first  in  the  month  of  March,  in  the  pre- 
sence of  the  king,  and  at  the  place  which  he  should  appoint ;  the 
second  in  October,  at  Soissons  or  elsewhere,  as  the  bishops 
might  determine  when  they  met  in  the  spring.  The  first  of 
these  was  a  mixed  assembly,  consisting  not  of  bishops  only,  but 
also  of  the  counts  and  other  lay  nobles  ;§  the  latter  was  an  eccle- 
siastical synod,  composed  of  metropolitans,  bishops,  abbots,  and 
priests.  It  was  convoked  by  the  metropolitans,  and  all  persons 
summoned  by  them  were  canonically  bound  to  attend. 

The  government  of  Charlemagne  presented  a  singular  specimen 
of  the  complete  fusion  or  amalgamation  of  Church  and  State. 
The  national  assemblies  of  his  reign  were  virtually,  though  not 
in  strict  form,  Councils  of  the  Church ;  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  bishops,  in  their  quality  of  "  Missi  dominici,"  were  employed 
as  actively  in  the  concerns  of  political  government  as  in  the 


dition  is  drawn  by  S.  Boniface  in  a 
letter  to  Pope  Zacharias: — "Franci, 
ut  seniores  dicunt,  plusquam  per  tempus 
octoginta  annoruin  synodum  non  fece- 
runt,  nee  Arcliiepiscopum  habuerunt, 
nee  Ecclesise  canonica  jura  alicubi 
fundabant  vel  renovabant.  Modb  autem 
maxima  ex  parte  per  civitatea  Episco- 
pales  sedes  truditse  sunt  laicis  ad  possi- 
dendum,  vel  adulteratis  clericis,  scorta- 
toribus  et  publicanis,  sseculariter  ad 


perfruendum." 

*  "  Concilium  Germanicum."  The 
locality  is  doubtful ;  it  is  conjectured 
to  have  been  Ratisbon. — Labbe,  Concil., 
torn.  vi.  p.  1533. 

f  Baron.,  Anndl.,  torn.  xii.  p.  477. 

j  "  Concilium  Vernense,"  A.D.  755. 

§  We  have  here  the  evident  germ 
of  the  modern  "  Parlement,"  which 
was  originally  of  a  semi-ecclesiastical 
character. 


30 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


INTROD. 


spiritual  administration  of  their  dioceses.  It  must  be  observed, 
however,  that  during  the  life  of  Charlemagne  these  assemblies 
had  little  or  no  direct  authority  in  legislation,  whether  political 
or  ecclesiastical.  They  were  scarcely  more  than  consultative 
bodies ;  the  Emperor  retained  in  his  own  hands  the  initiative  of 
measures  to  be  discussed,  and  also  the  power  of  final  decision. 
The  See  of  Eome  expressly  sanctioned,  instead  of  opposing,  this 
course  of  action ;  and  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  the  interests 
of  the  Church  could  hardly  have  been  confided  to  worthier  hands 
than  those  of  Charlemagne.  His  zeal  for  the  exact  observance 
of  synodal  legislation  was  unbounded.  His  *  Capitularies '  are 
full  of  passages  quoted  from  the  ancient  councils,  such  as  those 
of  Nica3a,  Chalcedon,  Antioch,  Ancyra,  Sardica,  Gangra,  Carthage, 
and  Neocaesarea — which  he  applies  and  enforces  as  laws  of  the 
Empire.  The  clergy  of  all  ranks  trusted  him  implicitly,  and 
had  abundant  cause  for  doing  so.  They  regarded  the  Imperial 
decrees  with  scarcely  less  reverence  and  submission  than  they 
paid  to  the  canonical  legislation  of  the  Church.  They  styled 
them  "  the  handmaids  of  the  canons ;"  *  and  were  accustomed  to 
transcribe  and  adopt  them  verbatim  in  the  proceedings  of  Pro- 
vincial and  Diocesan  Synods,  t  Hence  we  find  frequent  extracts 
from  them  in  the  collection  of  Canon  Law  by  Ivo  of  Chartres, 
and  in  the  '  Decretum '  of  Gratian. 

In  the  last  year  but  one  of  his  reign  Charlemagne  convoked 
five  great  Councils  simultaneously  in  the  metropolitical  cities  of 
Aries,  Mayence,  Eeims,  Tours,  and  Chalons.  They  legislated  in 
a  spirit  of  unqualified  subjection  to  the  Crown  ;  they  submitted 
their  canons  in  distinct  terms  to  the  judgment  of  the  Emperor, 
requesting  him  to  alter  and  correct  whatever  he  might  disap- 
prove, and  to  confirm  and  give  eifect  to  whatever  he  might  think 
wise  and  profitable.^ 

But  the  system  of  government  pursued  by  Charlemagne  was 
exceptional  and  transient.  When  the  Empire,  under  the  rule  of 
his  incapable  successors,  was  manifestly  falling  into  decrepitude 
and  dissolution,  the  Popes  began  a  second  time  to  interfere  with 
decisive  energy  in  the  internal  administration  of  the  Gallican 


*  "  Ut  canonum  prsecipiunt  instituta, 
simulque  eorum  pedisequa  Kegum 
capitularia." — Condi.  Troslei.,  Can.  III. 

t  Cf.  Baluz.,  Capit.,  Prsefat.  ad  Lect. 


J  Labbe,  Condi.,  torn.  vii.  p.  1238 
et  seq.  Dupuy,  Preuves  des  Liberty's, 
&c.,  p.  238. 


IKTBOD.  DEVELOPMENT  OF  PAPAL  POWER.  31 

Church.  They  now  asserted  an  absolute  right  to  receive  appeals 
in  all  ecclesiastical  causes,  and  that  even  previously  to  the 
sentence  of  the  local  tribunals.  They  claimed  the  power  of 
convoking  Councils  at  their  pleasure — of  presiding  over  them 
either  in  person  or  by  "legates  a  latere" — of  confirming  or  dis- 
allowing their  decisions,  and  even  of  annulling  them  altogether. 
These  pretensions  were  not  wholly  new ;  for,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  the  principle  of  appealing  to  Kome  in  the  "causse 
majores  "  was  recognized  at  least  as  early  as  the  fifth  century. 
Leo  the  Great  had  censured  and  disallowed  the  legislation  even 
of  an  (Ecumenical  Council ;  and  the  proceedings  of  Provincial 
synods  had  been  revised  and  reversed  in  various  instances  of  an 
equally  remote  date.  But  this  system  was  now  more  exten- 
sively developed  and  more  stringently  applied ;  and  the  circum- 
stances of  the  Church,  both  external  and  internal,  were  such 
as  to  promote  its  reception.  Secular  government — no  longer 
directed  by  the  master-mind  of  Charlemagne — was  sinking  into 
a  state  of  collapse,  and  society  was  threatened  with  anarchy  and 
chaos.  The  Crown  was  powerless  to  protect  the  Church  ;  while 
the  great  lay  vassals,  struggling  among  themselves  for  ascend- 
ency, had  every  inducement  to  embarrass  its  action.  The  clergy, 
meanwhile,  especially  the  bishops,  possessed  a  considerable 
share  of  power,  arising  not  only  from  their  superiority  in  intel- 
lect and  education,  but  from  the  vast  extent  of  their  domains, 
and  the  high  rank  which  they  held  in  the  feudal  aristocracy. 
The  Popes,  doubtless,  perceived  that  this  power,  skilfully  conso- 
lidated and  efficiently  administered,  might  prove  the  providential 
means  of  restoring  unity  and  order,  both  social  and  religious. 
They  saw  that  Eome,  at  such  a  moment,  was  the  true  rallying- 
point — the  true  source  of  moral  regeneration.  To  rivet  more 
closely  the  links  which  bound  all  orders  of  ecclesiastics  to  the 
See  of  Peter  was  to  concentrate,  and  therefore  immeasurably 
to  increase,  the  energies  and  resources  of  the  Church.  This 
policy — often  so  severely  reprobated  as  an  inexcusable  usurpa- 
tion—does not  appear  to  have  sprung  from  any  deliberate  design 
either  to  intrude  upon  the  just  prerogatives  of  the  Crown  or  to 
curtail  the  liberty  of  the  Church,  according  to  the  sense  in  which 
it  was  then  understood.  The  problem  of  the  moment  was  how 
to  save  both  Church  and  State  by  enabling  them  to  make  head 
against  the  surging  flood  of  semi-barbarous  revolution.  It  was 


32  THE  GALLICAN  CHUBCH.  INTBOD. 

a  necessity,  at  such  a  crisis,  that  the  ecclesiastical  element,  as 
embodied  in  the  Papacy,  should  assume  grander  and  more 
dominant  proportions,  in  order  to  avert  a  general  cataclysm. 
Nor,  perhaps,  ought  we  to  be  surprised  that  the  Popes,  in  the 
face  of  such  difficulties,  should  have  overstepped  the  bounds  of 
precedent  and  ignored  the  legislation  of  former  ages.  For  any 
such  modification  of  existing  usage  a  plausible  excuse  was  always 
at  hand  in  the  abnormal  circumstances  of  the  times.  "  Salus 
populi  suprema  lex." 

The  appellate  jurisdiction  of  Koine — involving  as  it  did  ques- 
tions of  crucial  importance  as  to  the  rights  of  metropolitans  and 
the  authority  of  provincial  Councils — was  the  main-spring  of 
the  agitation  which  prevailed  during  the  ninth  and  tenth  cen- 
turies. The  Gallican  episcopate,  under  the  leadership  of  Hinc- 
mar,  Archbishop  of  Keims,  steadily  defended  the  supremacy  of 
the  ancient  Canon  Law,  which  they  maintained  to  be  unalterably 
binding.  The  Pope,  on  the  contrary,  seems  to  have  held  that 
the  legislation  of  primitive  times  might  be  made  to  square  with 
considerations  of  expediency,  and  adapted  to  the  successive 
needs  of  the  Church.  Hence  arose  a  conflict  between  the  old 
and  the  new  discipline  ;  the  former  based  on  the  decrees  of  the 
great  (Ecumenical  Councils — the  latter  derived  chiefly  from  the 
rescripts  of  individual  Pontiffs,  or  rather  from  a  series  of  docu- 
ments purporting  to  be  such,  but  which  are  now  known  to  be 
spurious  —  the  "  Pseudo-Isidorian  "  Decretals,  Hincmar,  the 
champion  of  the  constitutional  system,  was  not  only  an  accu- 
rate canonist,  but  a  man  of  remarkable  administrative  power, 
and  the  foremost  statesman  of  the  age.  He  was  confronted,  how- 
ever, by  one  who  was  at  least  his  equal  in  genius  and  energy, 
and  who  had  formed  a  broader  conception  of  the  requirements 
of  the  Church  at  a  moment  of  special  embarrassment.  This  was 
Pope  Nicholas  I.  The  struggle  which  ensued  was  keen  and 
lengthened ;  but  the  Papal  policy  triumphed  in  the  end. 

Several  typical  cases  occurred  at  this  period,  illustrating  the 
change  of  relation  between  the  Papal  See  and  the  metropolitan 
and  diocesan  episcopate.  The  first  is  that  of  Ehotad,  Bishop  of 
Soissons.  Here  the  conduct  of  Pope  Nicholas  was  manifestly 
contrary  to  the  existing  statutes  and  long-established  practice 
of  the  Church.  Ehotad  had  been  cited  by  his  Metropolitan, 
Hincmar,  to  answer  certain  charges  before  a  provincial  Council 


INTROD.  HINCMAR  ON  APPEALS  TO"  ROME.  33 

at  Senlis.  He  refused  to  appear,  and  appealed  to  the  Pope  ; 
which,  according  to  the  canons,  he  had  no  right  to  do  until 
after  the  synod  of  the  province  had  pronounced  its  sentence. 
Being  summoned  to  attend  a  second  Council  at  Soissons,  he 
again  declined;  whereupon  he  was  arrested  by  the  King's  order, 
deposed  from  office,  and  confined  in  a  monastery.  The  Arch- 
bishop and  his  suffragan  were  both  politically  and  personally 
obnoxious  to  each  other;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
treatment  experienced  by  Khotad,  even  if  justifiable  by  the 
letter  of  the  law,  was  harsh  and  extreme.  His  appeal  was 
eagerly  received  at  Home,  and  the  Pope  wrote  to  Hincmar  re- 
quiring him  to  reinstate  the  accused  prelate  within  thirty  days, 
on  pain  of  suspension ;  or,  as  an  alternative,  to  send  him  forthwith 
to  Rome,  together  with  commissioners  on  his  own  behalf,  that 
the  case  might  be  re-argued  in  the  presence  of  the  Pontiff.* 
But  these  were  unconstitutional  demands.  Hincmar,  in  his 
reply,  which  is  worded  with  the  utmost  respect,  reminds  the  Pope 
of  the  forms  of  procedure  with  regard  to  appeals  to  Rome,  as 
prescribed  by  the  Council  of  Sardica,  upon  whose  decrees  the 
practice  mainly  rested.  He  states  that,  in  the  causes  majores 
affecting  bishops,  if  the  accused  appeals  to  the  Holy  See,  it  is 
the  duty  of  the  provincial  Synod,  after  pronouncing  judgment, 
to  report  to  the  Pope ;  and  that,  if  his  Holiness  should  so  de- 
termine, the  cause  must  be  heard  a  second  time.  The  Pope, 
however,  does  not  arbitrate  in  person — far  less  does  he  restore 
such  accused  prelate  by  virtue  of  his  sole  prerogative ;  but  he 
issues  a  commission  to  the  comprovincial  bishops,  or  to  other 
special  legates,  desiring  them  to  institute  a  fresh  trial  on  the 
spot ;  their  decision  being  final.!  Such,  undoubtedly,  were  the 
regulations  then  in  force ;  and  hence  we  see  that  the  Gallican 
Bishops  still  adhered  to  those  wise  provisions  of  antiquity,  by 
which  the  Church  had  drawn  a  distinction  between  autocratical 
supremacy  and  a  limited  Patriarchal  jurisdiction. 

Nevertheless,  since  the  Pope  persisted  in  requiring  the  per- 
sonal appearance  of  Rhotad  at  Rome,  he  was  at  length  permitted 
to  proceed  thither.  Nicholas,  after  waiting  several  months,  but 
in  vain,  for  the  commissaries  whom  he  had  ordered  Hincmar  to 


*  Nicolai  Papae  I.,  Epis.  34,  ann.,863  (Migne,  Patrolog.,  tom.  cxix.) 
t  Sirmond,  Condi.  Antiq.  Gall,  'torn.  iii.  p.  254. 

VOL.  I.  D 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


INTROD. 


send  to  represent  him,  proceeded  to  restore  the  deposed  bishop 
in  due  form,  and  despatched  a  legate  to  France,  by  whom  the 
sentence  was  carried  into  effect.  Ehotad  continued  to  govern 
the  see  of  Soissons  till  his  death. 

All  the  circumstances  connected  with  this  case  of  Ehotad 
deserve  careful  examination.  It  appears  that  the  Council 
which  deposed  him  had  submitted  to  the  Pope  that  the  Bishop's 
appeal  was  inadmissible  according  to  the  laws  of  the  Empire.  In 
reply  to  this,  Nicholas  gave  them  to  understand  that  "  temporal 
laws  are  not  always  to  be  applied  to  ecclesiastical  causes,  inas- 
much as  they  are  often  at  variance  with  the  provisions  of  the 
canons."*  Further,  he  instructs  them  that  in  causes  of  this 
nature  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Pope  is  paramount ;  his  sentence, 
the  highest  and  irrefragable  expression  of  the  Church's  judicial 
authority.  "  Even  if  Khotad  had  not  appealed,  you  ought  not  to 
have  deposed  a  bishop  without  consulting  the  Pope,  in  violation 
of  so  many  decretals  and  precepts  of  our  predecessors,  which 
the  Roman  Church  reverently  preserves  among  its  archives." 
And  whereas  it  was  objected  (in  all  probability  by  Hincmar)  that 
these  decretals  were  not  to  be  found  in  the  Code  of  Canons,  and 
therefore  were  not  obligatory,  Nicholas  declares  that  all  injunc- 
tions of  the  Pope  are  of  equal  authority,  equally  binding  on  the 
faithful,  whether  included  in  the  collection  of  canons  or  not.t 


*  Grat.,  Decref.,  I.  Dist.  x.  cap.  1 : 
"Lego  imperatorum  non  in  omnibus 
ecclesiasticis  controversiis  utendum  est, 
prsesurtim  quum  inveniantur  evangelic* 
et  canonicse  sanction!  aliquoties  ob- 
viare.  Lex  imperatorum  non  est  supra 
legem  Dei,  sed  subtus.  Imperial!  judi- 
cio  non  possunt  ecclesiastica  jura  dis- 
Bolvi." 

t  Nicol.  ad  univ.  Episc.  Gallise,  ap. 
Sirmond,  Condi.  Antiq.  Gall.,  torn.  iii. 
p.  2f>9.  The  celebrated  canon  "Si 
Komanonun "  (Dist.  xix.  cap.  1)  is  ex- 
tracted from  this  epistle.  Here  the 
Pope  quotes  the  authority  of  Ids  pre- 
decessors, Leo  and  Gelasius,  as  decisive 
upon  the  point  of  discipline  which  was 
contested  by  the  Gnllican  bishops.  The 
former  Pontiff  had  stated,  in  one  of 
his  Epistles,  that  "all  decretal  consti- 
tutions promulgated  by  the  Holy  See 
out  of  the  ecclesiastical  regulations 
and  the  directions  of  the  canons,  were 
to  be  observed  in  the  Church  with  such 


exactness,  that  any  one  wilfully  offend- 
ing against  them  must  not  expect  to  be 
excused."  ("  Omuia  decretalia  const i- 
tuta,  iam  beatse  recordationis  Innocentii, 
quam  omnium  decessorum  nostrorum, 
quse  de  ecclesiasticis  ordinibus  ct 
canonum  promulgata  sunt  disciplinis, 
ita  a  vestra  Dilectione  custodiri  manda- 
mus, ut  si  quis  in  ilia  comniiserit, 
veniam  sibi  noverit  dencgari.")  But 
Edm.  Richer  (De  eccles.  et  polit. 
potest.  Demonst.,  cap.  8,  §  3)  points  out 
that  this  does  not  refer  to  decrees 
made  by  the  Pope  on  his  personal  au- 
thority, "ex  motu  proprio,"  but  to  in- 
junctions published  by  him  as  extracted 
from,  the  canons, — the  Pope  being  the 
organ  through  which  the  laws  of  Coun- 
cils are  announced  to  the  universal 
Church.  Indeed  Gratian  himself,  com- 
menting on  the  canon  in  question, 
qualifies  the  authority  of  these  decretals 
by  a  similar  restriction.  "  Hoc  iutelli- 
gendum  est  de  illis  sanctionibus  vel 


IXTROD. 


THE  FORGED  DECRETALS. 


The  obvious  tendency  of  such  a  doctrine  was  to  render  the 
Pope  independent  of  the  legislation  of  Councils,  and,  in  fact,  to 
supersede  the  legislative  functions  of  the  Church  altogether. 

It  appears,  then  (1),  that  the  practice  of  referring  causse  majores, 
such  as  the  deposition  of  a  bishop,  to  the  judgment  of  Rome  in 
the  first  instance,  was  unsanctioned  by  the  Code  of  Canons  (that  of 
Dionysius  Exiguus)  at  this  time  received  in  the  Gallican  Church. 
And  (2),  that  the  practice  was  said  to  be  justified  by  certain 
decretal  epistles  of  ancient  Pontiffs,  which,  nevertheless,  had  not 
been  inserted  in  the  authorized  body  of  Canon  law.  Baronius 
and  most  historians  infer  that  the  decretals  thus  alluded  to  are 
none  other  than  the  documents  which  had  then  recently  made 
their  appearance  under  the  name  of  "  Isidore  Mercator,"  and 
which  long  afterwards  were  discovered  to  be  forgeries.  There 
is  no  reason  to  suppose,  however,  that  Nicholas  was  aware  that 
they  were  forged;  indeed,  since  he  never  quotes  from  the 
Isidorian  collection,  and  since  it  was  first  circulated  in  a  part  of 
Europe  far  distant  from  Rome,  it  is  probable  that  he  had  never 
seen  it.*  On  the  other  hand,  supposing  these  documents  to  be 
genuine,  they  would,  of  course,  have  possessed  considerable 
weight  and  authority  towards  determining  the  points  in  debate. 
Presumably,  in  the  absence  of  proof  to  the  contrary,  they  were 
genuine ;  and  accordingly  Hincmar,  though  he  may  have  had 
his  private  suspicions,  did  not  object  to  them  publicly  on  the 
score  of  authenticity,  but  because,  in  the  first  place,  these 
epistles  were  sometimes  inconsistent  with  themselves,  and  next, 
because  in  some  cases  they  were  at  variance  with  the  ancient 
canon  law.f  The  latter  was  the  principal  gravamen.  It  was  a 


decretalibus  epistolis,  in  quibus  nee 
prsecedentium  Patrum  decretis,  nee 
evangelicis  prseceptis,  aliquid  con- 
trarium  invenitur." 

*  See  the  ingenious  arguments  of 
Ballerini,  De  Ant.  Collect.  Can.,  Ft.  HI. 
cap.  6,  S.  Leon.,  Opp.  torn.  iii. 

t  "In  illis  reperiri  quasdam  sen- 
tentias  inter  se  dissonas;  potiusque 
ease  sacris  canonibus  promulgatis  fidem 
accommodandum,  qukm  ejusmodi  epis- 
tolis."—Flodoard.,  Hist.  Ithemens.,  Lib. 
iii.  cap.  22. 

"  Quantum  enim  distet  inter  ea  sci- 
licet Concilia  quse  custodienda  et  re- 
cipienda  decrevit,  et  inconvulsa  fir- 


maque  deinceps  Patres  Catholici  ma- 
nere  voluerutit,  et  illas  epistolas  quse 
diversis  temporibus  pro  diversorum 
consolatione  datse  fuerunt,  quas  venera- 
biliter  suscipiendas  docuit,  nemo  dog- 
matibus  exercitatus  ignorat.  Si  enim 
qusedam  ex  his  quae  in  quibusdam  illis 
epistolis  continentur  tenure  et  custodiri 
velle  inceperimus,  adversus  ea  quse  ante 
servare  voluimus,  faciemus ;  et  a  Cou- 
ciliis  sacris  quaa  perpetuo  nobis  reci- 
pienda,  tenenda,  custodienda  atque  se- 
quenda  sunt,  deviabimus."  Hinem. 
opusc.  in  caus.  Hincm.  Laudun.,  cap. 
25  (Migne,  Patrol.,  torn,  cxxvi.).  This 
latter  passage  is  decisive  as  to  Hinc- 

D    2 


S6  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  IKTROD. 

question  of  comparative  and  relative  authority.  There  might 
exist,  not  improbably,  whether  at  Rome  or  elsewhere,  decretal 
epistles  of  the  early  Popes,  in  addition  to  those  which  had  been 
collected  by  Dionysius,  and  embodied  in  his  Codex  Canonum. 
Any  and  all  such  utterances  of  the  Apostolic  See,  if  agreeable 
to  the  legislation  of  (Ecumenical  councils,  Hincmar  declared 
himself  ready  to  accept  with  the  utmost  veneration.  But  he 
declined  to  invest  these  dicta  of  individual  Pontiffs  with  an 
authority  co-equal  with  that  of  the  Church  in  her  legislative 
synods.  It  was  this  latter  portentous  assumption  of  the  Papacy 
that  formed  the  strain  of  the  contest  so  gallantly  sustained  by 
Hincmar  and  his  suffragans,  and  by  several  successive  genera- 
tions of  the  Gallican  hierarchy.  The  controversy,  in  the  ninth 
and  tenth  centuries,  did  not  turn  upon  the  genuineness  of  the 
particular  collection  of  decretals  edited  by  the  Pseudo-Isidore 
(for  it  would  seem  that  in  those  days  there  was  not  sufficient 
critical  skill  to  detect  the  fraud)  but  upon  the  degree  of  eccle- 
siastical force  and  obligation  attaching  to  any  documents  of  that 
nature,  when  put  in  competition  with  the  syuodical  statutes  of 
the  Church. 

Pope  Nicholas  showed  a  similar  spirit  of  encroachment  in 
the  matter  of  certain  priests  who  were  deposed  by  a  provincial 
council  at  Soissons  in  the  year  853,  as  having  been  uncanonically 
ordained  by  Ebbo,  a  former  Archbishop  of  Reims,  who  had  him- 
self been  deprived  for  taking  part  in  the  treasonable  conspiracy 
against  Louis  le  Debonnaire.  They  appealed  to  the  Apostolic 
See ;  and  the  Pope — although  there  was  no  just  ground  of  excep- 
tion to  the  proceedings  at  Soissons,  which  had  been  confirmed 


mar's  view  of  the  general  drift  of  (he  the  ancient  collections  of  canons  which 

Tsidorian    decretals  —  viz.,    that    they  |  were  current  in  the  Church  till  the 

tended  to  introduce  a  serious  change  j  publication  of  Isidore's  collection  ex- 

of  discipline,  &    departure    from    the  ;  clusively.     The   new  law  consists  of 

venerable    legislation   of   the  ancient  the  new  coTlections  of  canons  and  Ponti- 

Councils.    Even  Ballcrini  admits  that  I  flcal  decretals,  the  last  of  wliich  forms, 


some  such  result  followed  from  Ihe 
publication  and  reception  of  the  spuri- 
ous canons.  "  Negari  non  posse  videtur, 


together  with  the  Decretum  of  Gratian, 
what  is  called  the  'Body  of  canon 
law. '  This  collection  is  chiefly  com- 


quin    eadem  (nova)   disciplina    latius  |  posed  of  what  is  least  valuable  in  the 

propagata  magis  multo  inoleverit,  post-  j  canonical  coustitutions,  insomuch  that 

quam  esedem  decretales  editae  et  di-  it  might  be  more  correctly  styled  the 

vulgatae  fuerunt,  ac  mox  in  quibusdam  !  body  of  the  Pope's  law  than  of  the 


Conciliia  laudato."  The  change  is 
t'ms  charact»rised  by  the  Chancellor 
D'Aguesseau  :— "  The  old  law  signifies 


law  of  the  Church.'^ — D'Aguesseau, 
Instructions  sur  les  lEtudes,  CEuvres, 
torn.  i.  p.  281. 


INTBOD.  DEPOSITION  OP  HINCMAK  OF  LAON.  37 

by  his  predecessor — ordered  the  Bishops  to  meet  a  second  time 
and  revise  their  sentence.  Hincmar  behaved  on  this  occasion 
with  remarkable  moderation  and  forbearance.  He  pointed  out 
that  it  was  impossible  to  cancel  the  decrees  of  the  former  synod, 
which  had  been  passed  by  legitimate  authority,  and  were  fully 
justified  by  the  facts ;  but  at  the  same  time  he  suggested  thai 
in  virtue  of  the  power  conferred  upon  them  by  the  Pope's  com- 
mission, it  was  open  to  them  to  commute  a  sentence  which  his 
Holiness  considered  too  severe,  and  to  satisfy  the  requirements 
of  discipline  by  the  "more  excellent  way"  of  charity.  Accord- 
ingly the  Council,  while  carefully  maintaining  the  validity  of 
the  previous  acts  in  condemnation  of  the  accused,  restored  them 
to  the  priesthood  as  a  measure  of  "  indulgence,"  and  out  of 
deference  to  the  wishes  of  the  Holy  Father.* 

Under  Adrian  II.,  who  succeeded  Nicholas,  the  Gallicans  again 
contended  for  the  lawful  jurisdiction  of  their  local  Councils  in  the 
case  of  Hincmar,  Bishop  of  Laon,  a  nephew  of  the  Metropolitan 
of  Eeims.  The  younger  Hiucmar,  a  turbulent,  headstrong  man, 
finding  that  he  was  likely  to  be  condemned  by  the  sentence  of 
his  brethren,  availed  himself  of  the  resource  which  was  found 
more  and  more  convenient  by  those  who  sought  to  evade  justice, 
and  appealed  to  the  Pope.  The  appeal  was  disregarded  by  the 
French  prelates,  who,  at  the  Council  of  Douzi  in  871,  pro- 
nounced Hincmar  guilty,  and  deposed  him  from  his  see ;  the 
sentence  of  deposition  being  signed  by  eight  Archbishops  and 
thirteen  Bishops.  In  their  synodical  epistle  to  Pope  Adrian, 
these  prelates  begged  his  Holiness,  if  he  should  think  proper 
to  revise  their  proceedings  (which  they  did  not  anticipate),  to 
do  so  in  the  form  prescribed  by  the  Canons — namely,  by  ap- 
pointing commissioners  to  examine  the  affair  afresh  in  the  pro- 
vince to  which  it  belonged ;  and  demanded  that  Hincmar  should 
not  be  reinstated  prior  to  such  investigation.  "  For  up  to  this 
time,"  said  they,  "  no  decree  of  antiquity  has  ever  been  admitted 
in  derogation  of  this  privilege  in  the  Gallican  and  Belgic 
churches."  f  Adrian,  in  reply,  insisted  on  the  prerogative  of 
his  See;  commanded  Hincmar  to  attend  personally  at  Eome  to 
pursue  his  appeal;  and  in  the  mean  time  forbade  any  fresh 


*  Labbe,  Condi.,  torn.  viii.  p.  81(5.  t  Ibid.,  p. 


THE  GALL1CAN  CHURCH. 


INTROD. 


appointment  to  the  See  of  Laon.  But  the  resolute  opposition 
which  he  encountered  both  from  the  King  (Charles  the  Bald) 
and  the  episcopate  induced  him  ere  long  to  change  his  tone. 
"  Let  me  remind  you,"  said  the  King,  in  a  letter  evidently  dic- 
tated by  Hincmar,  "  that  the  prerogative  of  St.  Peter  is  in  force, 
as  St.  Leo  declares,  when  his  decrees  are  founded  on  the  laws  of 
equity;  whence  it  follows  that  if  unjust  they  are  of  no  autho- 
rity."* And  the  bishops  significantly  remarked  that  before 
pronouncing  sentence  upon  Hincmar,  they  had  caused  the 
canons  of  Sardica  to  be  read  in  synod.  The  Pope  now  made 
an  important  concession ;  he  promised  that  if  Hincmar  were 
permitted  to  proceed  to  Borne  he  would  forbear  to  decide  upon 
the  case,  and  would  cause  it  to  be  finally  adjudicated  in  the 
province.!  The  result  was  that  the  deposition  remained  valid, 
and  a  successor  was  appointed  to  the  See  of  Laon.  The 
unfortunate  Hincmar  was  afterwards  treated  with  barbarous 
rigour ;  he  was  kept  a  close  prisoner,  and  was  deprived  of  his 
eyesight. 

The  influence  of  Hincmar  of  Beiins  was  again  clearly  pre- 
dominant in  a  council  held  at  Pontyon  in  the  year  876 ;  when 
the  Gallican  prelates  resisted  the  pretensions  of  Ansegisus,  Arch- 
bishop of  Sens,  who  had  been  appointed  by  Pope  John  VIII. 
primate  and  Vicar  Apostolic  in  Gaul  and  Germany.  The  newly- 
crowned  Emperor,  Charles  the  Bald,  who  had  lately  returned 
from  Borne,  was  present  on  this  occasion,  together  with  two 
Papal  legates.  The  Pope's  letter  was  read,  constituting  Ansegisus 
his  representative  in  France,  empowering  him  to  convoke  coun- 
cils, and  to  exercise  a  general  superintendence  over  ecclesiastical 
affairs.  The  Bishops  desired  leave  to  read  the  document  for 
themselves;  but  the  Emperor  refused  to  allow  this,  and  de- 
manded their  unqualified  submission  to  the  mandate.  Upon 
this  they  replied  that  they  were  ready  to  obey  the  Pope's  com- 
mands, provided  always  that  they  were  in  conformity  with  the 
ancient  canons,  and  with  those  decrees  which  the  Popes  them- 


*  "Manet  ergo  Petri  privilegium, 
ubicunque  ex  ipsius  fertur  scquitate  ju- 
dicium,  nee  nimia  est  vel  severitas  vel 
remissio;  ubi  nihil  erit  ligatum,  nib.il 
solutum,  nisi  quod  B.  Petrus  aut  sol- 
verit  aut  ligaverit."  S.  Leon.,  Serin.  IV. 


(Edit.  Bailer.)  Decret.  II.,  Caus.  xxiv. 
Qusest.  1. 

t  Hadr.  II.  Papse  Epist.  xix.  np. 
Bouquet,  Becueil  des  Historiens,  toui. 
vii.  p.  458. 


INTROD. 


COUNCIL  OF  PONTYON. 


39 


selves  had  promulgated  as  enacted  by  the  Councils.  They 
were  pressed  by  the  Emperor  and  the  legates  at  several  succes- 
sive meetings  to  accept  the  appointment  unconditionally,  but  to 
no  purpose ;  nothing  was  to  be  obtained  from  them  beyond  their 
former  carefully  guarded  answer.  The  Bishop  of  Bordeaux, 
who  was  ambitious  of  being  translated,  through  the  favour  of  the 
Emperor,  to  the  Archbishopric  of  Bourges,  was  the  only  prelate 
who  expressed  himself  willing  to  acquiesce  in  the  demand.  The 
Emperor,  much  irritated,  declared  that  he  had  authority  from 
the  Pope  to  carry  his  orders  into  effect  in  the  matter,  and 
proceeded  to  install  Ansegisus  in  a  chair  of  state  next  to  the 
legates,  thus  establishing  his  primatial  dignity  in  the  face  of 
the  assembled  episcopate.  Hincmar  protested  against  this  as 
a  violation  of  the  Canons.  Eenewed  efforts  were  made  subse- 
quently to  induce  the  bishops  to  recognise  Ansegisus  in  his  new 
position;  "but  he  obtained  nothing  more  at  the  conclusion  of 
the  Council  than  he  had  done  at  the  beginning."  *  There  can- 
not be  a  clearer  proof  of  the  paramount  importance  attached 
by  the  Gallican  Church  to  the  principle  of  synodical  legislation, 
and  to  the  authority  of  the  primitive  system  of  ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction.  Hincmar  inculcates  this  doctrine  at  great  length 
and  with  singular  power  in  one  of  his  epistles.t  "  If,"  he  says, 
"  in  this  humble  synod  of  ours  anything  has  been  superadded  or 
sanctioned,  through  the  complaisance  of  two  or  three  prelates, 
the  silence  of  others,  or  the  pride  of  imperial  power,  in  contra- 
vention of  the  sacred  canons,  or  of  Pontifical  decrees  promul- 
gated agreeably  to  those  canons,  or  at  variance  with  the  ancient 
privileges  secured  to  every  Metropolitan  by  the  selfsame  laws — 
if  any  such  crude  and  inconsiderate  measure  has  been  broached, 
it  must  be  understood  that  the  great  majority  of  our  body  did 
not  consent  to  it,  but  most  resolutely  rejected  it  with  heart  and 
mouth ;  and  the  judgment  of  the  majority  carried  with  it  due 
weight  and  effect — an  effect  which,  with  the  help  of  God,  will 
last  for  ever.J  For,  as  S.  Leo  writes  to  Maximus,  Bishop  of 


*  Annal.  Berlin,  ap.  Sirmond,  Condi. 
Antiq.  Gall.,  torn.  iii. 

t  Hincmar,  Epist.  XXX.  c.  33 
(Migne,  Patrolog.,  torn,  cxxvi.  p.  208). 

J  "  Generalitasnostra  Deo  auctorc  non 


annuit,  sed  corde  ac  contradicente  ore 
constantissime  abnuit ;  et  sententia 
plurimorum  debitum  robur  atque  vigo- 
rem  obtiuuit,  obtinet,  ac  adjuvante 
Domino  perpctiin  obtinebit. ' 


40 


THE  GALL1CAN  CHURCH. 


INTKOD. 


Antioeh,*  whatever  may  have  been  attempted,  or  for  a  time 
extorted  by  violence  by  any  one,  in  opposition  to  the  statutes 
of  Nicjea,  can  do  no  prejudice  to  those  inviolable  decrees.  Far 
easier  were  it  to  dissolve  the  bonds  of  any  other  compact,  be 
the  contracting  parties  whom  they  may,  than  that  the  regu- 
lations of  the  aforesaid  canons  should  be  in  any  particular 
abrogated." 

Thus  the  Pontifical  rescript  in  favour  of  Ansegisus  remained 
practically  null  and  void.  The  Archbishops  of  Sens  assumed 
from  that  time  forward  the  title  of  "Primates  of  Gaul  and 
Germany;"  but  it  was  a  mere  nominal  distinction,  unattended 
by  jurisdiction  or  authority. 

The  circumstances  attending  the  deposition  of  Arnulf,  Arch- 
bishop of  Eeims,  in  991,  afford  another  proof  of  Gallican  tenacity 
in  adhering  to  the  regulations  of  the  ancient  discipline.  Arnulf, 
a  natural  son  of  King  Lothaire,  had  been  convicted  of  high 
treason  against  Hugh  Capet,  and  was  in  consequence  deposed 
by  a  Council  held  at  the  monastery  of  St.  Bale,  near  Eeims.t 
It  was  urged  in  his  defence  that  the  Council  had  proceeded 
irregularly ;  that  the  affair  ought  to  have  been  notified  in  the 
first  instance  to  the  Pope,  and  that  it  was  for  him  to  summon  a 
council  to  take  cognizance  of  the  charge  and  pronounce  judg- 
ment. The  Bishop  of  Orleans,  who  conducted  the  prosecution, 
replied  that  the  Pope  (John  XV.)  had  been  informed,  that 
during  many  months  the  bishops  had  awaited  his  answer,  and 
that,  since  none  had  arrived,  they  were  justified  in  acting  on 
their  own  authority.  "  The  Church  of  Borne,"  said  this  prelate, 
(or  rather  Gerbert,  who,  no  doubt,  composed  the  speech  which  he 
attributes  to  him),  "  is  for  ever  to  be  honoured  in  memory  of 
St.  Peter ;  and  the  decrees  of  the  Popes  are  to  be  duly  respected, 


*  S.  Leo  ad  Maximum  Antiochcn. 
Episc.  (Epist.  66,  al.  92) :  "  Si  quid  a 
quoquam  contra  Nicsenorum  canonum 
statuta  in  quacunque  synodo  vel  ten- 
tatum  est  vel  a<l  tempus  videtur  ex- 
tortum,  nihil  prsejudicii  potest  inviola- 
bilibus  inferre  decretis.  Et  facilius  erit 
quorumlibet  consensionum  pactura  dis- 
solvi,  quam  praedictorum  canonum  regu- 
las  ex  ulla  parte  corrumpi." 

t  Labbe,  Cmcil.,  torn.  ix.  p.  738.  The 
acts  of  this  Council  have  come  down  to 


us  on  the  authority  of  Gerbert ;  from 
which  circumbtance  Baronius  disputes 
their  authenticity,  since  Gerbert  was 
undoubtedly  a  party  nearly  interested 
in  the  cause.  But  it  is  not  likely  that 
he  has  been  guilty  of  serious  misrepre- 
sentation, for  he  was  surrounded  by 
so  many  quick-sighted  rivals,  that  any 
such  fraud  could  hardly  have  escaped 
detection.  Moreover,  his  account  agrees 
closely  with  that  of  the  contemporary 
chronicler  Richer. 


IN TROD. 


GERBERT  ON  PAPAL  ADMINISTRATION. 


41 


saving  always  the  canons  of  Nicsea  and  of  other  councils,  which 
must  remain  eternally  in  force.  For  we  must  take  good  heed 
that  neither  the  silence  nor  the  new  constitutions  of  the  Pope 
are  allowed  to  prejudice  the  ancient  canons  of  the  Church.  If 
his  silence  is  to  prevail,  it  follows  that  all  laws — all  the  decrees 
of  antiquity — must  be  suspended  so  long  as  he  remains  mute. 
But  if  we  are  to  be  bound  by  his  new  constitutions,  where  is  the 
use  of  enacting  laws  at  all,  since  they  may  be  rescinded  at  once 
by  the  will  of  a  single  individual  ?  Do  we,  then,  wish  to  detract 
from  the  just  prerogatives  of  Rome  ?  By  no  means.  But,  alas ! 
how  pitiable  is  the  condition  of  Rome  at  present !  The  throne 
of  the  Leos  and  the  G-regories,  of  Gelasius  and  of  Innocent,  is 
occupied  by  monsters  of  licentiousness,  cruelty,  and  impiety. ' 
Let  us  pray  for  the  conversion  of  our  superiors ;  but,  meanwhile, 
let  us  look  for  advice  and  direction  to  some  other  quarter  than 
Rome,  where  all  is  corrupt,  and  justice  is  bartered  for  gold." 
The  bishop  then  proceeds  to  comment  upon  the  famous  dicta  of 
Popes  Innocent  and  Gelasius,  to  the  effect  that  Rome  is  the 
judge  of  the  universal  Church,  while  she  herself  cannot  be 
judged  at  all ;  that  all  the  world  is  entitled  to  appeal  to  Rome, 
but  that  from  her  judgment  there  is  no  appeal.*  "  If  this  be 
so,"  says  the  orator,  "  we  have  at  least  a  right  to  demand  that 
the  Roman  Pontiff  shall  be  one  capable  of  pronouncing  an  indis- 
putable judgment ;  whereas  it  is  reported  that,  at  present,  Rome 
is  given  up  to  the  most  barbarous  ignorance.  But,  even  sup- 
posing that  the  present  Pope  were  a  Damasus,"  he  continues, 
"what  have  we  done  to  contravene  his  decree?!  We  never- 
attempted  to  decide  this  cause  until  no  hope  remained  of  our 
obtaining  a  decision  from  Rome.  And  as  to  holding  a  council 


*  Decrct.  II.  Caus.  IX.  Qu.  iii.  capp. 
13,  16,  17,  18. 

f  The  bishop  is  evidently  not  aware 
that  the  decree  to  which  he  alludes  is 
fictitious.  It  is  one  of  the  Pseudo-Isi- 
dorian  decretals,  professing  to  be  an 
epistle  from  Pope  Damasus  to  Stephen, 
an  archbishop  of  Mauritania  (Decret.  II. 
Caus.  III.  Qu.  vi.  c.  6) :  "  Discutere 
episcopos  et  summas  ecclesiasticorum 
negotiorum  causas  Metropolitano  una 
cum  omnibus  suis  comprovincialibus, 
licet;  sed  diffinire  ecclesiasticorum 


summas  querelas  causarum,  vel  damnare 
episcopos  absque  hujus  sanctao  sed  is 
auctoritate,  minime  licet ;  quoniam  om- 
nes  appellare,  si  necesse  fuerit,  et  ejus 
auxilio  lulciri  oportet."  The  prohibi- 
tion to  hold  councils  without  permission 
from  Home  does  not  occur  in  this  de- 
cretal, but  in  another,  equally  "un- 
historicul,"  ascribed  to  Pope  Julius 
(Caus.  III.  Qu.  iv.  cap.  9).  Again, 
Dist.  xvii.  c.  2  :  "  Non  est  rectum  con- 
cilium, quod  auctoritate  Romanae  Ec- 
clesiaj  fultum  non  fuerit."  The  Isi- 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


TNTROD. 


without  his  permission,  the  Council  of  Nicsea,  so  specially 
reverenced  by  Rome  herself,  ordains  that  councils  shall  be  held 
iu  each  province  twice  every  year,  without  any  mention  of  the 
authority  of  the  Pope.  In  short,"  he  concludes,  "  to  avoid  fur- 
ther disputing,  if  the  judgment  of  Eome  be  just,  we  will  accept 
it  willingly ;  but,  if  unjust,  let  us  obey  the  Apostle,  and  refuse  to 
listen  even  to  an  angel  from  heaven,  if  he  should  command  any- 
thing contrary  to  the  Gospel.  If  Rome  is  silent,  as  in  the 
present  case,  let  us  consult  the  laws  of  the  Church.  What  other 
course  is  open  to  us,  since  Rome  appears  to  be  abandoned  by  all 
aid,  divine  and  human,  nay,  even  to  have  abandoned  herself?" 

The  bishops  and  clergy  of  the  province  elected,  as  successor 
to  Arnulf,  the  accomplished  Gerbert,  then  President  of  the 
Ecclesiastical  College  at  Reims,  afterwards  Pope  Sylvester  II. 

Pope  John  XY.  denounced  these  proceedings  as  uncanonical, 
and  ordered  another  council  to  meet  and  reconsider  the  judg- 
ment. The  bishops  assembled  accordingly  at  Chelles,  and 
resolved  that  the  former  sentence  must  be  confirmed ;  declar- 
ing, moreover,  that  they  regarded  as  null  and  void  whatever  the 
Pope  might  ordain  in  opposition  to  the  decrees  of  Councils.* 
Upon  this  the  Pontiff  held  a  synod  at  Rome,  annulled  the 


dorian  compilation  had  by  this  time 
come  into  vogue  in  the  Western  Church, 
chiefly,  no  doubt,  in  consequence  of  the 
unsettled  and  anarchical  spirit  of  the 
nge ;  for  not  only  was  the  prevailing 
ignorance  favourable  to  the  fraud,  but 
the  political  state  of  Europe  was  such 
that  the  ascendency  of  Home  was  hailed 
on  all  sides  us  an  element  of  strength, 
and  a  pledge  of  security.  The  false 
decretals  were  incorporated  by  Gratian 
in  his  Decretum ;  and  as  that  work  ac- 
quired paramount  authority  in  the 
mediaeval  Church,  the  assumed  pre- 
rogatives of  the  Popes  were  thus  placed 
upon  a  footing  which  few  had  either 
the  courage  or  the  learning  to  dispute. 
These  documents  occasionally  find  de- 
fenders in  our  own  days ;  not,  indeed,  as 
having  been  actually  written  by  the 
Pontiffs  whose  names  they  bear,  but  as 
representing  in  a  general  way  the  mind 
of  the  Church  from  the  beginning  upon 
various  great  principles  of  discipline. 
But  if  they  are  admitted  to  be  ficti- 


tious, the  doctrines  they  inculcate  are 
discredited  ipso  facto;  for  no  man 
would  embark  in  such  a  monstrous 
imposture,  if  the  system  which  he 
advocated  were  already  generally  re- 
ceived in  the  Church.  Moreover,  this 
plea  is  refuted  by  the  silence,  and 
in  some  instances  by  the  explicit  legis- 
lation, of  Councils,  on  the  points  at 
issue. 

*  "  Placuit  quoque  sanciri,  si  quid  a 
Papa  Romano  contra  pat  rum  decreta 
suggeieretur,  cassum  et  irritum  fieri, 
juxta  quod  Apostolus  ait,  Hsereticum 
hominem  et  ab  Ecclesia  dissentientem 
penitus  devita.  Nee  minus  abdica- 
tionem  Arnulfi  et  promotionem  Gerberti, 
prout  ab  eis  ordinatae  et  peractaj  essent, 
perpetuo  placuit  sanciri,  juxta  quod  in 
canonibus  scriptum  habetur,  synodo 
provincial!  statutum  a  nullo  temere 
labefactandum. ' — Richer,  Histor.,  Lib. 
iv.  c.  89.  ap.  Pertz.,  Monument.  German., 
lorn.  iii. 


INTROD. 


GERBERT  AND  ARNULF. 


43 


deposition  of  Arnulf  and  the  appointment  of  Gerbert,  and  ex- 
communicated all  the  bishops  who  had  taken  part  in  those  acts, 
including  Gerbert  himself.  The  French  prelates,  instigated  by 
Gerbert,  set  at  nought  the  sentence  of  interdict ;  and  Gerbert 
indulged  on  the  occasion  in  grossly  insubordinate  and  abusive 
language  against  the  Pope.  John  XV.,  roused  into  energy,  sent 
a  legate  into  France,  who  held  a  council  at  Mouson  in  996,* 
when  Gerbert  was  suspended  from  his  archiepiscopal  functions, 
until  sentence  should  be  definitively  passed  upon  him  at  a  future 
council  convoked  at  Reims.  Hugh  Capet,  who  had  warmly 
supported  Gerbert,  died  at  this  juncture;  and  the  loss  of  his 
patron  seems  to  have  determined  the  archbishop  to  relinquish 
the  contest.  He  absented  himself  from  the  Council  of  Reims, 
and  that  body,  under  the  dictation  of  the  Pope's  legate,  pro- 
nounced his  deposition  from  the  see,  and  replaced  Arnulf  in  his 
former  dignity,  cancelling  the  proceedings  against  the  latter 
prelate,  on  the  ground  that  a  bishop  could  not  be  condemned 
without  the  consent  of  the  Pope.  This  exposition  of  the  existing 
discipline  was  apparently  correct  in  the  case  of  a  metropolitan. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  an  accused  prelate  agreed  to  accept  his 
episcopal  brethren  as  his  judges  (which  Arnulf  seems  to  have 
done),t  he  thereby  forfeited  the  right  of  appeal  to  Rome,  and 
the  verdict  of  the  provincial  court  was  final. 

This  whole  case  is  much  embarrassed  by  the  political 
intrigues  and  rivalries  which  prevailed  at  the  time.  Arnulf 
represented  the  dethroned  Carlo vin  gians ;  Gerbert  was  the 
partisan  of  the  Capetian  family,  who  had  just  succeeded  to 
power.  So  long  as  Hugh  Capet  lived,  the  Gallican  bishops  were 
resolute  in  asserting  their  synodical  rights,  and  in  protesting 
against  attempts  to  subvert  them  by  the  introduction  of  rules 
of  discipline  hitherto  unheard  of;  and  Arnulf,  accordingly, 
was  kept  in  prison,  while  Gerbert  occupied  the  archiepiscopal 
throne.  But  no  sooner  had  the  crown  descended  to  King 
Robert  on  the  death  of  his  father,  than  he  entered  into  a  secret 


*  Condi.  Mosomense.,  Labbe,  torn.  ix. 
p.  747. 

f  See  his  act  of  submission  in  Richer, 
Histor.,  Lib.  iv.  c.  72:  "Siguinum 
Archiepiscopum,  &c.,  constitui  mihi 
judices  delictonim  meomm,  et  puram 
ipsis  confessionem  dcdi,  quscrens  reme- 


dium  poenitcndi  et  salutem  animse  mese, 
ut  recoderem  ab  officio  et  ministerio 
pontifical  i,  quo  me  recognosco  esse  in- 
dignum."  The  canon,  "  Ab  electis  ju- 
dicibus  provocare  non  licet,"  dates  from 
the  fifth  Council  of  Carthage,  A.D.  407. 
(Caus.  II.  Qu.  vi.  c.  39). 


44  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  INTROD. 

compromise  with  the  Pope,  by  which  he  agreed  to  sacrifice  Ger- 
bert,  provided  a  dispensation  were  granted  him  for  his  marriage 
\vith  Queen  Bertha,  which  was  objected  to  at  Kome  on  the  score 
of  affinity.  In  consequence  of  this  understanding,  the  royal 
influence  was  brought  to  bear  upon  the  Council  of  Keims,  and 
this,  in  conjunction  with  the  powerful  pressure  exercised  by  the 
legate,  produced  the  change  of  sentiment  in  that  assembly,  by 
which  Gerbert  was  displaced  and  Arnulf  re-established.  The 
transitional  character  of  the  epoch,  and  the  feebleness  of  the 
new  dynasty,  contributed  greatly  to  the  success  of  the  Papal 
tactics  on  this  and  other  like  occasions.  The  first  Capetian 
monarchs  were  but  feudal  chieftains,  surrounded  by  a  host  of 
nominal  vassals  very  little,  if  at  all,  inferior  to  themselves  in 
possessions  and  authority.  To  a  prince  thus  situated  it  was 
an  object  of  no  common  importance  to  secure  the  support  of 
the  reigning  Pontiff;  and  not  un frequently  it  was  found  con- 
venient to  purchase  it  by  conniving  at  acts  which  were 
grievously  prejudicial  to  the  rights  and  welfare  of  the  National 
Church. 

The  new  principle  propounded  by  Nicholas  I.  and  his  successors, 
on  the  strength  of  the  pseudo-Decretals,  that  no  Council  was 
legitimate  unless  sanctioned  by  the  Holy  See,  rendered  it  neces- 
sary to  extend  largely  the  system  of  legations  ;  and  this  became 
one  of  the  most  marked  features  of  the  Papal  policy  during  the 
middle  ages.  From  the  eleventh  century  the  legates  a  latere 
were  the  ordinary  means  of  communication  between  Rome  and 
the  provinces  of  the  West;  their  powers  were  lavishly  augmented, 
and  all  ecclesiastical  affairs  of  any  importance  passed  through 
their  hands.*  They  were  authorized  to  convoke  Councils  through- 
out the  provinces  within  their  legations ;  and  in  these  Councils 
they  presided,  taking  precedence  of  the  Metropolitan  and  all 
other  prelates.  They  could  suspend  or  depose  any  bishop  who 
was  bold  enough  to  question  their  mandates;  they  might  re- 
serve to  the  judgment  of  the  Holy  See  any  point  upon  which 
they  could  not  persuade  the  provincial  synod  to  endorse  their 
view&t  In  this  way  the  canonical  jurisdiction  of  the  Epis- 
copate was  virtually  superseded.  There  were  instances,  doubt- 


*  Fleury,  4me  Discours  sur  I' Hist.  Eccles.,  No.  11. 

t  De  Marca,  Concord.  Sac.  et  Imp.,  Lib.  vi.  cap.  30,  §  3. 


IKTROD.  PAPAL  LEGATES.  45 

less,  in  which  the  legatine  functions  were  discharged  to  the 
manifest  advantage  of  the  Church  ;  such  as  that  of  Hildebrand 
(afterwards  Gregory  VII.),  who,  being  sent  to  France  in  that 
capacity  by  Pope  Victor  II.,  fulfilled  the  mission  with  such  ex- 
emplary zeal  as  to  effect  a  complete  revival,  both  doctrinal  and 
disciplinary,  among  the  clergy  of  all  ranks.  Nor  is  it  to  be 
denied  that  much  was  done  by  this  means  towards  effecting 
general  unity  of  ecclesiastical  action — an  object  of  essential 
moment,  if  the  Church  was  to  hold  her  own  in  the  great  im- 
pending struggle  against  feudal  despotism.  Nevertheless,  the 
practice  of  governing  by  legates  was  not  established  without  con- 
siderable opposition  in  France.  Sometimes  this  arose  from  the 
zeal  displayed  by  the  Papal  representatives  in  their  efforts  of 
reform,  and  the  severe  penalties  which  they  inflicted  upon  clerical 
offenders ;  as  in  the  case  of  Hugues,  Bishop  of  Die,  legate  of 
Gregory  VII.,  who  deposed  the  three  Metropolitans  of  Eeims, 
Lyons,  and  Sens,  for  simony,  concubinage,  and  other  delinquen- 
cies. But  more  frequently  they  provoked  resistance  by -over- 
straining their  authority,  and  innovating  upon  the  usages  of 
antiquity.  Ivo  of  Chartres  was  more  than  once  brought  into 
collision  with  the  legate  Hugues,  Archbishop  of  Lyons,  who  held 
the  office  under  several  Pontiffs  in  succession.  Hugues,  on  one 
occasion,  had  summoned  the  Gallican  prelates  to  meet  in  a  general 
synod,  although  Pope  Urban  II.  himself  had  already  presided  at 
two  Councils  in  France  within  the  same  year.  Thereupon  Ivo 
was  consulted  by  the  king  (Philip  I.)  as  to  the  lawfulness  of  such 
a  proceeding.  He  replied  without  hesitation  that  it  was  con- 
trary to  Apostolic  institution,  and  to  the  received  custom  of  the 
Church;  and  that  it  was  the  king's  duty,  after  taking  counsel 
with  the  bishops  of  the  realm,  to  repel  such  acts  of  injustice  and 
oppression.*  Again,  the  same  legate  refused  to  confirm  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  newly  elected  Archbishop  of  Sens,  except  on  the 
condition  that  he  should  previously  acknowledge  upon  oath 
the  primacy  of  the  See  of  Lyons,  which  was  a  contested  point 
between  the  two  Metropolitans.  The  archbishop-elect  declining 
to  comply,  Hugues  forbade  the  bishops  of  the  province  to  pro- 
ceed to  his  consecration.  This  piece  of  presumption  drew  from 
Ivo  of  Chartres  a  letter  full  of  dignified  rebuke.  He  told  the 


*  Ivon.  Carnot..  Epist.  Ivi.;  Baron.,  Ann.  ad  ann.  1100. 


46 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


INTROD. 


legate  that  he  and  his  colleagues  entertained  profound  respect 
for  the  authority  which  he  represented,  and  were  ready  to  execute 
at  all  hazards  the  orders  of  the  Holy  See  regarding  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  Faith  and  the  correction  of  morals ;  but  he  bade  him 
beware  of  imposing  obligations  as  to  matters  indifferent,  to  the 
prejudice  of  the  canons  of  the  Church  and  the  authorized  cus- 
toms of  the  Fathers.  He  reminded  him  of  the  celebrated  maxim 
of  Pope  Zosimus,  that  it  is  not  in  the  power  even  of  the  See  of 
Home  to  ordain  anything  contrary  to  the  constitutions  of  the 
Fathers,  or  to  make  any  alteration  in  them.*  The  canons,  he 
observed,  contain  precise  directions  as  to  the  mode  of  con- 
secrating a  Metropolitan;  he  was  surprised,  therefore,  at  the 
attempt  to  enforce  on  the  new  prelate  an  oath  of  subjection 
to  the  Archbishop  of  Lyons  as  primate,  when  it  was  notorious 
that  no  such  declaration  had  ever  yet  been  required,  either  in 
the  province  of  Sens  or  elsewhere.  In  conclusion,  he  exhorted 
Hugues  to  turn  his  attention  to  the  really  important  objects  con- 
nected with  his  mission  \  and  warned  him  of  the  danger  and 
scandal  of  contending  about  trifles,  while  the  weightier  matters 
of  the  law  are  systematically  neglected,  f 

The  same  high-spirited  prelate  addressed  a  stern  remonstrance 
to  Pope  Paschal  II.,  who  had  annulled  certain  acts  of  a  Gallican 
Council  upon  a  representation  made  by  the  legate.  "  Of  what 
use  will  it  be,"  he  asks,  "  to  celebrate  Councils  for  the  future, 
since  their  judgments,  though  supported  by  the  gravest  weight 
of  authority,  are  liable  to  be  reversed  at  any  moment  on  the 
complaint  of  a  single  individual  ?  Wherefore  we  entreat  your 
Holiness  to  consider  carefully  the  relative  advantages  and  dis- 
advantages attending  such  interference,  and  to  embrace  a  wiser 
policy ;  so  that  synodical  sentences  may  not  be  rescinded  except 
in  extreme  cases ;  and  that  the  apostolic  constitutions  may  be 
more  scrupulously  observed."  $ 

The  excessive  amount  of  power  enjoyed  by  the  legates  gra- 
dually rendered  them  odious  in  France,  especially  to  the  bishops, 
who  found  themselves  almost  dependent  on  the  pleasure  of  these 


*  Grat.  Decret.  II.  Caus.  xxv.  Qu.  i. 
cap.  7. — "  Contra  statuta  Patrum  con- 
dere  aliquid  vel  mutare  nee  hujua 
quidem  Sedis  potest  auctoritas.  Apud 
nos  enim  inconvulsis  radicibus  vivit 


antiquitas,  cui  decreta  Patrum  sanxere 
reverentiam." 

t  Ivon.  Carnot,  Epist.  Ixv. 

J  Ivon.  Epist.  xcv.  (Migne,  Patrolog., 
torn,  clxii.). 


INTROD.  RESTRICTIONS  ON  LEGATES  IN  FRANCE.  47 

intrusive  functionaries  for  their  continuance  in  office.  Their 
luxurious  habits  of  living,  their  covetousness,  their  arrogant 
demeanour,  their  corrupt  administration  of  justice,  added  to  the 
general  aversion  they  inspired ;  and  by  the  time  of  St.  Bernard 
of  Clairvaux,  the  legatine  office  had  become  the  source  of  some 
of  the  most  crying  evils  that  infested  the  Church.*  The  French 
monarchy,  in  proportion  as  it  acquired  strength  and  stability 
under  the  kings  of  the  "  third  race/'  applied  itself  vigilantly  to 
the  task  of  checking  these  abuses  ;  an  object  which  was  success- 
fully attained  before  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century.  It  appears 
that,  from  the  first,  the  legates  could  not  exercise  their  office 
without  the  express  consent  of  the  crown. f  The  Pope  ascertained 
beforehand  that  the  mission  of  the  proposed  legate  would  be 
acceptable  to  the  sovereign ;  and  the  latter,  in  his  turn,  made 
request  to  the  Pope  whenever  he  desired  the  presence  of  a  special 
envoy  from  Rome.  f  No  sooner  had  the  constitution  acquired 
its  modern  shape,  than  the  Courts  of  Parliament  were  charged 
with  the  duty  of  examining  the  Papal  bulls  appointing  legates* 
and  of  making  such  regulations  as  to  the  discharge  of  their  func- 
tions as  might  be  judged  needful  to  the  security  of  the  realm.§ 
Clauses  were  inserted  by  their  authority  in  the  act  of  verifi- 
cation of  the  royal  letters  patent,  which  stipulated  that  the 
office  of  the  legate  must  be  executed  in  conformity  with  the 
canons,  the  prerogatives  and  ordinances  of  the  king,  the  laws  of 
the  realm,  the  liberties  of  the  Gallican  Church,  and  the  privi- 
leges of  the  Universities.  The  legate  was  warned  that  if  any 
infraction  of  these  rules  should  occur,  the  illegal  act  would  be 
treated  as  null  and  void,  and  that  upon  complaint  being  made 
to  the  Parliament,  it  would  be  cancelled  as  "  abusif."  In  course 


*  S.  Bern.  Epist.  290,  ad  Episc.  Os-  ;  Roman  Pontiff  to  appoint  legates  in 

tiensem.  Fleury,  4me  Discourp,  No.  11.  i  any  and  every  quarter  of  the  globe,  and 

f  De  Marca,  Concord.  Sac.  et  Imp.,  denounces  the  heaviest  penalties  against 

Lib.  v.  cap.  56.  De  Hericourt,  Loix  those  who  refuse  to  receive  them,  plainly 

Eccles.  de  France,  Pt.  I.  cap.  7.  j  implies  that  this  prerogative  had  been 

J  Thus  Alexander  III.,  when  pre-  contested.  Hence  De  Marca  ascribes 

paring  to  send  Archbishop  Becket  into  I  it  to  Pope  Boniface  VIII.,  who  is  known 

France  as  legate,  with  a  view  to  accom-  ;  to  have  insisted  fctrongly  on  this  point 

modate  matters  between  him  and  Henry  ;  in  his  proposed  treaty  of  reconciliation 

II.,  wrote  to  Louis  VII.  soliciting,  with  i  with  Philip  the  Fair.  In  the  Codex 


considerable  earnestness,  his  sanction  for 
the  step.  Baron.  Ann.,  ad  ann.  1168. 
The  Decretal  "super  gentes"  (Ex- 
travag.  Decret.,  Lib.  i.  Tit.  1),  though 


it  asserts  the    absolute  right  of  the   \   i.  cep.  52. 


Juris  Canonici  it  bears  the  name  of  John 
XXII. 

§  Thomassin,    Vet.   et  Nov.    Eccles. 
Discip.,  I.  Lib.  ii.  cap.  219 ;  and  II.  Lib. 


48  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  IKTROD. 

of  time  the  following  were  also  laid  down  as  constitutional 
maxims  in  France :  That  the  Pope's  legate  has  no  jurisdiction 
as  an  ecclesiastical  ordinary ;  that  he  may  not  supersede,  nor 
in  any  way  disturb,  the  lawful  jurisdiction  of  metropolitan  and 
diocesan  prelates ;  that  he  cannot  take  cognizance,  in  first  in- 
stance, of  any  cause  affecting  the  clergy;  that  he  cannot  cite 
before  him  any  of  the  king's  subjects,  nor  assume  any  sort  of 
judicial  or  magisterial  authority  over  them.*  In  consequence 
of  these  jealous  precautions,  the  Pontifical  legates  found  them- 
selves ere  long  comparatively  powerless.  Subsequently  to  the 
reign  of  Philip  the  Fair,  or  at  all  events  from  the  middle  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  Gallican  synods  were  but  rarely  held  under 
their  presidency ;  while  on  the  other  hand  Provincial  Councils, 
canonically  celebrated  by  the  Metropolitans  and  their  suffragans, 
were  frequent  during  the  same  period. 

During  the  troubles  of  the  "great  Schism,"  the  Church  of 
France  distinguished  itself  by  a  series  of  memorable  Councils, 
the  results  of  which  decided  the  national  policy,  and,  indeed,  the 
general  course  of  ecclesiastical  affairs  in  Europe,  in  those  dis- 
ordered times.  It  must  be  remarked,  however,  that  the  com- 
position of  these  celebrated  assemblies  was  somewhat  irregular ; 
they  were  not,  strictly  speaking,  ecclesiastical  synods,  but  rather 
gatherings  of  all  the  personages  most  eminent  in  rank  and 
authority,  both  in  Church  and  State.  They  were  convened  by 
the  Crown.  The  right  of  suffrage  upon  the  purely  religious 
questions  in  debate  was  assigned  to  the  prelates  and  clergy ;  the 
decisions  at  which  they  arrived  wrere  reported  to  the  king,  and, 
after  having  received  the  sanction  of  the  royal  council,  were 
carried  into  effect  by  the  joint  action  of  the  civil  and  spiritual 
authorities.  The  same  mode  of  procedure  was  followed  at  the 
great  national  assembly  of  Bourges  in  1438,  which  enacted  the 
second  "  Pragmatic  Sanction." 

The  organic  change  which  practically  abolished  the  Councils 
of  the  Church  in  France  dates  from  the  era  of  the  Reformation. 
It  appears  to  have  originated  in  the  pecuniary  necessities  and 
tyrannical  exactions  of  the  Crown  during  the  "  Wars  of  Re- 
ligion." At  the  Colloquy  of  Poissy  (December,  1561),  the 


*  Mfmoires  du   Clergtf,  torn.  vii.  p.  1424  et  seqtj.    Fleury,  Discours   sur   les 
Libert&  Gallicanes  (Opuscules,  torn.  iv.). 


INTKOD.  EXACTIONS  FROM  THE  CLERGY.  49 

clergy  entered  into  an  engagement  with  the  Government  to  pay 
the  interest  of  one  of  the  principal  public  securities — the  "  Eentes 
de  1'Hotel  de  Ville,"*  for  the  space  of  six  years  ensuing.  This 
tax,  together  with  an  immense  addition  for  other  purposes, 
having  been  duly  acquitted,  the  same  contribution  was  imposed 
for  a  further  period  of  ten  years ;  and  in  the  sequel  it  became  a 
permanent  assessment  on  the  property  of  the  Church,  under  the 
name  of  the  "  decime  ordinaire."  It  was  resisted,  however,  with 
considerable  spirit,  in  1579 ;  when  deputies  were  despatched 
from  every  province  and  diocese  to  petition  Henry  III.  to  call  a 
general  assembly  of  the  ecclesiastical  order  for  the  settlement  of 
the  affair.  With  much  difficulty  the  king  was  induced  to  con- 
sent ;  and  the  clergy  were  summoned  to  meet  at  Paris,  with  an 
express  proviso  that  not  more  than  three  representatives  were  to 
be  elected  for  each  province.  They  assembled  at  Melun,  and 
forthwith  proceeded  to  discuss  two  questions  in  which  their  order 
was  vitally  interested  at  that  day — the  promulgation  of  the 
Council  of  Trent  and  the  revival  of  free  episcopal  election. 
Their  object,  doubtless,  was  to  extort  concessions  from  the 
Government  upon  these  points,  in  exchange  for  any  further 
sacrifice  of  temporalities  which  it  might  be  in  contemplation  to 
demand  from  them.  They  urged  their  wishes  on  the  king  by 
repeated  deputations,  and  in  most  importunate  terms ;  but 
altogether  without  satisfaction.  Thus  provoked,  the  Assembly 
declared  in  the  name  of  the  clergy  that  they  would  no  longer  be 
answerable  for  the  annuities  of  the  Hotel  de  Ville.  Symptoms 
of  popular  irritation  followed;  the  Parliament  interfered,  and 
the  clergy  were  compelled  to  yield.  They  agreed  to  guarantee 
the  dividends  in  question  for  an  additional  period  of  ten  years  ; 
and,  moreover,  to  pay  the  king  an  annual  subsidy  of  1,300,000 
livres  for  six  years.f  From  this  date  the  "  General  Assembly  of 
the  Clergy  of  France "  was  held  regularly  once  in  ten  years ; 
and  besides  the  decennial  sessions,  called  "  Assemblies  du  Con- 
trat,"  an  intermediate  meeting,  the  "  Assemblee  des  Comptes," 
took  place  every  five  years,  for  the  purpose  of  auditing  the 
accounts  of  the  receiver-general.  The  former  consisted  of 


*  So  called  because  the  dividends 
were  payable  at  the  Hotel  de  Ville  at 
Paris.  The  amount  guaranteed  by  the 
clergy  was  reckoned  at  1,600,000  livres; 


which  was  to  be  paid  by  six  equal 
instalments. 

t  Contin.  de  Fleury,  Liv.  clxxv.  capp. 
21,  24. 


VOL.  I.  E 


50  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  INTROD. 

four  representatives  for  each  ecclesiastical  province,  two  from 
the  episcopal  and  two  from  the  priestly  order ;  making  in  all 
sixty-four  members.  The  deputies  of  the  second  order  were 
ecclesiastics  beneficed  within  the  province  which  elected  them. 
They  had  the  privilege  of  being  reputed  resident  on  their  cures 
while  attending  the  assembly,  and  during  the  session  were  exempt 
from  arrest  and  civil  process.  The  assembly  nominated  one  or 
more  of  the  prelates,  being  deputies,  to  act  as  presidents. 

The  Assembly  of  the  clergy  could  not  meet  but  by  the  king's 
command.  Commissioners  on  behalf  of  the  crown  were  appointed 
to  open  its  sitting,  and  were  the  bearers  of  a  royal  missive 
demanding  a  renewal  of  the  "  contrat,"  and  also  the  "  don 
gratuit,"  a  heavy  impost  disguised  under  that  ironical  name. 
The  commissioners  also  communicated  to  the  assembly  the 
affairs  which  the  king  desired  to  bring  under  its  notice ;  these 
were  chiefly  matters  of  external  Church  policy,  which,  having 
been  discussed  in  the  Council  of  State,  were  referred  to  the 
clergy  for  the  benefit  of  their  advice.  All  questions  of  theology, 
however,  or  of  a  purely  spiritual  character,  were  left  to  the  dis- 
cretion of  the  ecclesiastics  themselves. 

The  question  was  mooted  on  several  occasions,  whether 
deputies  of  the  second  order  possessed  a  judicial  voice  in  discus- 
sions upon  doctrine,  or  whether  their  functions  were  consultative 
only, — the  decision  resting  solely  with  the  bishops.  This  was 
at  length  determined  by  the  Assembly  of  the  year  1700,  which 
ruled  that  pastors  of  the  second  order  had  no  right,  in  virtue 
of  their  ecclesiastical  status,  to  act  as  judges  of  doctrine ;  but 
that  if  their  constituents  distinctly  stated,  in  the  official  return, 
that  they  empowered  them  to  take  part  in  such  deliberations, 
in  that  case  the  Assembly  would  admit  the  claim.  The  power, 
however,  must  be  conferred  in  positive  terms.* 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  point  out  that  these  modern  con- 
vocations of  the  clergy  were  by  no  means  equivalent  to  synods 
of  the  ancient  normal  type.  In  the  first  place,  the  bishops  were 
not  present  as  a  body,  in  virtue  of  their  office  as  rulers  of  the 
Church,  but  only  by  a  deputation  of  two  of  their  number  for 
each  province;  and  the  representation  of  the  priesthood  was 
still  more  glaringly  defective — two  deputies  only  being  returned 

*  M&maires  du  Clerge,  torn.  viii.  p.  382. 


INTROD.         THE  ASSEMBLE  GENERALE  DU  CLERGE.  51 

by  the  parochial  clergy  of  an  entire  province,  and  these,  almost 
invariably,  members  of  the  Cathedral  Chapters.  It  is  true  that 
the  principle  of  representation  was  not  unfairly  carried  out ; 
since  a  preliminary  meeting  was  held,  called  the  "  assemblee 
diocesaine,"  at  which  the  beneficed  clergy  of  each  diocese  nomi- 
nated two  of  their  body  to  act  in  the  "  assemble  provinciale  ;" 
and  by  the  votes  of  the  latter  the  deputies  were  elected  who 
were  to  serve  in  the  "  assemble'e  generale  "  at  Paris.  The  scanti- 
ness of  numbers  was  remedied  to  some  extent  by  the  practice  of 
applying  to  bishops,  and  other  persons  of  eminent  station  and 
merit,  not  being  members  of  the  Assembly,  for  their  advice  in 
cases  of  difficulty.  This  course  was  commonly  taken  when  the 
Assembly  was  about  to  pass  censure  on  books  containing 
heterodox  doctrine.* 

Again,  the  subject-matter  treated  of  in  these  Assemblies  was 
for  the  most  part  of  a  temporal  nature ;  their  principal  business 
consisted  in  voting  supplies  for  the  service  of  the  Crown,  and 
apportioning  the  amount  to  be  raised  among  the  different 
dioceses.  It  was  for  this  reason  that  the  Government  per- 
mitted them  to  be  held  with  such  unfailing  regularity ;  while 
on  the  other  hand,  the  celebration  of  provincial  synods, — recom- 
mended as  it  was  by  the  immemorial  prescription  of  the  Church, 
— was,  from  the  sixteenth  century  downwards,  systematically 
discouraged,  if  not  prohibited,  by  the  civil  authority. 

And  lastly,  although  these  Assemblies  were  plenipotentiary, 
and  could  not  be  appealed  from,  in  all  affairs  connected  with  the 
taxation  of  the  clerical  body,  their  doctrinal  decisions  carried 
with  them  no  conciliar  prestige,  and  were  not  regarded  as  bind- 
ing on  the  conscience  of  the  faithful.  They  were  not  empowered 
to  enact  canons ;  and  their  manifestos,  though  received  with  the 
respect  inseparable  from  the  position  of  their  authors,  by  no 
means  commanded  the  invariable  and  universal  acquiescence 
of  the  Church. 

In  the  interval  between  the  quinquennial  sessions  of  the 
Assembly,  the  affairs  of  the  clergy  were  managed  by  two 
officers  called  "  agens-generaux  du  clerge,"  whose  functions  were 
of  considerable  importance.  They  were  named  by  the  ecclesi- 
astical provinces  in  rotation,  and  held  office  for  five  years.  Their 

*  M&moires  du  Clergt,  torn.  viii.  p.  425. 

E   2 


52  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  INTROD. 

duty  was  to  watch  over  the  interests  of  the  Church  generally, 
and  in  case  of  any  infraction  of  its  liberties,  or  other  proceeding 
tending  to  its  detriment,  they  were  to  forward  an  immediate 
complaint  to  the  Crown  ;  for  which  purpose  they  were  entitled 
to  claim  personal  access  to  the  Council-board  of  the  sovereign. 
In  any  sudden  emergency  requiring  prompt  action,  the  agens- 
generaux  were  authorized  to  apply  to  the  bishops  who  might  be 
in  Paris  or  at  the  Court,  who  thereupon  held  an  extraordinary 
meeting  to  determine  the  course  to  be  taken  under  the  circum- 
stances.* These  private  episcopal  conferences  were  often  of 
essential  service  to  the  Church.  They  were  not  recognized  by 
the  State,  inasmuch  as  the  prelates  assembled  on  these  occasions 
were  not  formally  deputed  to  represent  their  brethren.  Never- 
theless the  influence  of  the  government  of  the  day  was  not 
unfrequently  brought  to  bear  upon  them  for  the  attainment 
of  some  political  object; — a  pressure  which  could  hardly  be 
resisted.  This  was  instanced  very  notably  at  more  than  one 
critical  period  of  the  Jansenist  controversy.  . 

It  must  not  be  forgotten,  that  in  addition  to  these  various 
forms  of  synodical  and  quasi-synodical  action,  the  Church  of 
France  anciently  possessed  a  direct  means  of  making  its  voice 
heard  in  the  national  councils.  The  clergy  constituted  one  of 
the  Estates  of  the  realm,  and  ranked  first  in  order  of  precedence. 
As  often  as  the  States-General  were  convoked,  the  clergy  of  each 
bailliage  met,  at  the  summons  of  the  Governor  of  the  province, 
and  proceeded  to  elect  deputies  to  represent  them  in  the  supreme 
legislature.  They  had  the  right,  in  common  with  the  other  two 
orders,  of  presenting  to  the  throne  a  "  cahier  de  doleances,"  or 
memorial  setting  forth  their  views  upon  any  or  all  branches 
of  the  public  administration,  and  urging  their  demands  of 
reformation  or  redress.  Moreover,  a  certain  number  of  clerical 
councillors  (conseillers-clercs)  were  attached  to  nearly  all  the 
courts  of  Parliament  throughout  the  kingdom ;  whose  authority 
in  civil  causes  was  equal  to  that  of  the  lay  magistrates.  In 
the  reign  of  Philip  VI.  there  were  fifty  conseillers-clercs  in  the 
Parliament  of  Paris  alone. 


M&noirea  du  Clergt,  torn.  viii.  p.  737. 


INTROD. 


JUDICIAL  SUPREMACY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


53 


V. 

THE  supremacy  of  the  Church  in  her  judicial  capacity — and 
indeed  the  entire  system  of  ecclesiastical  polity  elaborated  by 
Gregory  VII.,  and  other  Pontiffs  of  like  calibre — was  accepted 
in  France  for  many  ages  with  the  same  submission  as  in  other 
parts  of  Christendom ;  and  the  clergy  shared  largely  in  the 
general  ascendency  which  thus  accrued  to  their  order.  The  es- 
sential principles  of  that  system  were  proclaimed  by  none  with 
more  clearness  and  ability  than  by  the  great  Gallican  theologians 
of  the  twelfth  century ; — such  as  Geoffrey  of  Vendome,  Hugh  of 
St.  Victor,  Ivo  of  Chartres,  Hildebert  of  Le  Mans,  and  Bernard 
of  Clairvaux.  These  writers  teach  that  the  temporal  power,  no 
less  than  the  spiritual,  is  ordained  by  God  ;  they  maintain  the 
distinction,  and  the  mutual  independence,  of  the  two  elements  ; 
but  they  concur  in  extolling  the  spiritualty  as  immeasurably 
superior  to  the  temporalty ;  and  affirm  that,  in  consequence, 
the  Church  must  exercise  a  certain  dominant  influence  over  the 
whole  economy  of  human  government.  Some  few  theorists  of 
extreme  views  (for  instance,  John  of  Salisbury,  Bishop  of  Chartres) 
went  so  far  as  to  attribute  to  the  Church,  or  rather  to  the  Pope, 
a  direct  authority,  of  Divine  right,  over  the  administration  of  all 
temporal  affairs.*  But  the  more  common  opinion  reduced  it  to 
an  indirect  influence,  arising  from  the  unquestionable  prerogative 
of  the  Church  as  the  instructor  and  guide  of  conscience.  All 
baptized  Christians,  it  was  argued,  are  subject  to  the  control  of 
the  Church  in  matters  of  faith  and  religious  duty.  The  Gospel 
is  not  one  thing  for  the  multitude  and  another  perfectly  different 
thing  for  monarchs  and  nobles.  The  prince,  in  common  with  his 
meanest  vassal,  is  committed  to  the  pastoral  oversight  of  those 
whom  Christ  commissioned  to  feed  His  flock ;  and  it  belongs, 
therefore,  to  them  to  inform  and  direct  his  conscience  as  to  the 
right  administration  of  his  trust.  As  a  Catholic,  he  is  the  son 
of  the  Church,  not  its  governor ;  in  things  pertaining  to  religion, 
it  is  his  place  to  be  a  learner,  not  a  teacher,  f  Such  was  the 
simple  basis  of  a  system  which,  in  its  organized  application  to 


*  See  his  curious  treatise  entitled 
"  Polycraticus,"  in  the  Bibliotheca  Pa- 
trum  (Bigne),  torn,  xxiii. 


t  Decret.  I.  Diet.  xcyi.  cap.  11 :  "Im- 
peratores  debent  Pontificibus  subesse, 
non  prseesee." 


54 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


IN  TROD. 


the  details  of  government  and  the  diversified  realities  of  life, 
ruled  the  world  for  upwards  of  five  centuries. 

Though  founded  on  a  great  and  indisputable  truth,  it  became 
dangerous  at  length,  by  reason  of  the  false  deductions  which 
were  drawn  from  it.  For  it  was  inferred  that,  in  case  of  serious 
delinquency  in  faith  or  morals,  a  sovereign  was  amenable  to 
corrective  discipline ;  and  that,  as  a  last  resource,  he  might  be 
excommunicated.  Now,  according  to  the  prevailing  belief  of 
those  days,  the  ban  of  excommunication  carried  with  it  penal 
consequences,  not  only  of  a  spiritual,  but  of  a  temporal  and  civil 
nature.  A  monarch  under  such  an  infliction,  being  cut  off  from 
the  unity  of  the  Christian  body,  was  deemed  no  longer  fit  to  bear 
rule  over  Christians.  From  this  latter  fact,  then,  an  extreme 
conclusion  was  arrived  at,  radically  subversive  of  all  monarchical 
authority ;  namely,  that  if  the  offender  remained  stubbornly 
impenitent,  it  was  competent  to  the  Pope  to  absolve  his  subjects 
from  their  oath  of  allegiance,  and  practically  to  depose  him  from 
the  throne. 

Nor  were  these  mere  theoretical  maxims,  confined  to  dry 
treatises  of  theology,  to  the  conventual  cloister,  or  the  lecture 
rooms  of  Universities.  The  world  beheld  them,  in  many  memor- 
able instances,  logically  reduced  to  practice.  Several  Carlovin- 
gian  princes — Louis  le  Debonnaire,  Lothaire,  Charles  the  Bald 
— were  dethroned  by  the  authority  of  Gallican  synods ;  and  the 
legality  of  the  proceeding  was  questioned  by  no  man ;  nay,  was 
acknowledged  by  the  deposed  monarchs  themselves.*  King 
Kobert,  again,  was  excommunicated  by  Pope  Gregory  V. ;  Philip 
I.  by  Gregory  VII. ;  Philip  Augustus  by  Innocent  III.,  who, 
moreover,  kept  the  whole  of  France  under  an  interdict  for  eight 
months.  Even  the  heirs  of  the  Caesars — Henry  IV.,  Henry  V., 
Frederick  II. — had  cause  to  rue  the  day  when  they  presumed  to 
measure  themselves  against  the  mysterious  theocracy  represented 
by  the  Vicar  of  Christ. 

Geoffrey,  Abbot  of  Vendome  and  Cardinal,  A.D.  1095,  is  sai'l 
to  have  been  the  first  to  point  out  the  mystical  significance  of 
the  "  two  swords "  in  the  Gospel  of  St.  Luke.f  This  fanciful 
interpretation  soon  became  popular  with  ecclesiastical  writers ; 


*  See  the  declaration  of  Cliarles  the 
Bald  before  the  bishops  assembled  at 
the  Council  of  Savouieres,  or  Toul,  A.D. 


859. — Labbe,  Condi.,  torn.  viii. 

t  See  Gosselin,  Pouvoir  du  Pape  au 
Moyen  Age,  Pt.  II.  cap.  3. 


INTROD.  S.  BERNARD  ON  THE  TWO  SWORDS.  55 

and  an  argument  was  derived  from  it  which  was  seriously  re- 
garded as  establishing  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope  over  both 
worlds,  spiritual  and  temporal.  Such  is  the  use  made  of  the 
allegory  by  St.  Bernard,  in  a  well-known  passage  of  his  treatise 
"  De  Consideratione,"  addressed  to  Pope  Eugenius  III.*  "  If  any 
one  should  deny  that  the  material  sword  belongs  to  you,  I  think 
he  cannot  have  paid  attention  to  the  words  of  Christ,  who  com- 
manded Peter  to  put  up  his  sword  into  the  sheath.  This  sword, 
then,  is  assuredly  yours,  to  be  drawn  at  your  demand,  although 
by  other  hands  than  yours.  If  it  were  not  at  your  disposal, 
when  the  Apostles  said,  Lord,  behold  here  are  two  swords,  our 
Lord,  instead  of  answering,  It  is  enough,  would  have  said,  It  is 
too  much.  The  two  swords,  then,  belong  to  the  Church — the 
spiritual  and  the  material.  It  is  for  the  Church  herself  to  draw 
the  spiritual  sword,  by  the  hands  of  the  sovereign  Pontiff;  the 
material  sword  is  to  be  drawn  in  defence  of  the  Church,  by  the 
hands  of  the  soldier,  at  the  solicitation  of  the  Pope  and  by  order 
of  the  prince."  Again,  in  a  letter  to  the  Cardinals  who  had  just 
elected  Pope  Eugenius,  Bernard  exclaims,  "  G-od  forgive  you ! 
what  have  you  done  ?  Was  there  no  man  to  be  found  of  greater 
wisdom  and  experience,  who  would  have  been  better  qualified 
for  so  high  an  office  ?  In  truth  it  seems  ridiculous  to  choose  a 
poor  creature  covered  with  rags  (Eugenius  was  a  Cistertian 
monk)  to  rule  over  princes,  to  give  laws  to  bishops,  to  dispose  of 
kingdoms  and  empires.  Was  this  a  man  to  gird  on  the  sword 
and  execute  vengeance  on  the  people — to  bind  their  kings  in 
chains  and  their  nobles  with  links  of  iron  ?"  t 

A  remarkable  statement  to  the  same  effect  occurs  in  the 
writings  of  Hugh,  Abbot  of  St.  Victor  at  Paris,  another  mediseval 
doctor  of  high  repute.  Speaking  of  the  two  principles  of  govern- 
ment, "  the  one,"  he  says,  "  is  called  the  temporal,  the  other  the 
spiritual;  both  contain  different  orders  and  degrees  of  power; 
but  on  each  side  they  are  dependent  on  a  single  head,  from 
which  they  derive  as  from  their  source  and  root  of  unity.  The 
temporal  power  has  for  its  head  the  prince;  the  head  of  the 
spiritual  is  the  sovereign  Pontiff.  To  the  royal  authority  belong 
all  things  which  are  earthly  and  connected  with  the  natural 


*  S.  Bern.,  De  Considerat.,  Lib.  iv.  cap.  3  (Migno,  Patrohg.,  torn,  clxxxii.). 
t  S.  Bern.,  Epist,  227,  ad  Cardinales. 


56  THE  GALLICAN  CHUECH.  INTBOD. 

life ;  all  that  is  spiritual,  all  that  appertains  to  the  spiritual  life, 
is  placed  under  the  government  of  the  supreme  Pontiff.  But  by 
how  much  the  spiritual  life  is  nobler  than  the  earthly,  and  the 
soul  than  the  body,  in  that  proportion  the  spiritual  power  exceeds 
in  honour  and  dignity  that  which  is  earthly  or  secular.  For  to 
the  spiritual  power  it  belongs  both  to  establish  the  earthly,  that 
it  may  exist,  and  to  judge  it,  if  it  should  act  amiss.  But  the 
spiritual  power  itself  is  instituted  by  God  alone,  and  if  it  should 
err,  it  can  be  judged  by  none  but  Him ;  as  it  is  written,  The 
spiritual  man  judgeth  all  things,  but  he  himself  is  judged  of  no 
man."  He  then  shows  from  the  Old  Testament  history  that  the 
priestly  office  was  first  instituted  by  G-od,  and  the  royal  authority 
afterwards  organized  through  its  ministry.  "Hence  in  the  Chris- 
tian Church  the  bishops  still  consecrate  kings,  both  sanctifying 
their  power  by  benediction,  and  forming  it  by  institution.  If  then, 
according  to  the  Apostle,  he  who  blesseth  is  greater  than  him 
who  is  blessed,  it  follows  manifestly  that  the  temporal  power  is 
inferior  to  the  spiritual,  from  which  it  receives  benediction."  * 

It  was  easy  thus  to  define  in  words  the  comparative  nature 
and  functions  of  ecclesiastical  and  political  authority;  but,  in 
practical  operation,  the  system  was  found  to  involve  insuper- 
able difficulties.  The  spiritual  and  the  temporal  are  ideas  dis- 
tinct in  theory,  but  as  a  matter  of  experience  neither  element 
confines  itself  strictly  to  its  proper  sphere.  Who  will  under- 
take to  fix  the  precise  point  where  the  purely  spiritual  ends 
and  the  purely  temporal  begins?  It  is  probably  impossible, 
under  any  circumstances,  that  the  balance  should  be  maintained 
at  an  exact  equipoise.  It  has  been  in  all  ages  a  history  of  alter- 
nate action  and  reaction — of  aggression  and  repulse.  Nay,  even 
the  theory  of  the  Hildebrandine  school  is  inconsistent  with  itself; 
for,  if  once  it  be  admitted  that  the  Church,  represented  by  the 
Pope,  possesses  a  directive  power  over  the  civil  ruler,  and  may 
take  cognizance  of  his  acts  judicially  in  case  of  alleged  error,  the 
independence  of  the  two  principles,  however  affirmed  in  words, 
is  in  fact  overthrown.  Such  a  prerogative  is  capable  of  indefinite 
extension.  It  may  be  so  exercised  as  to  be  a  means  of  perpetual 
interference  with  the  ordinary  administration  of  civil  affairs  ;  for 
what  human  government  is  exempt  from  error?  If  every  instance 


*  Hugo  de  8.  Vici ,  De  Sacram.,  Lib.  ii.  Pt.  II.  cap.  3  (Mignc,  Patrolog.,  torn.  176). 


INTBOD.        INNOCENT  III.  ON  PAPAL  JURISDICTION.  57 

of  mistaken  judgment,  every  act  of  unwise  or  unjust  policy,  on  the 
part  of  a  civil  ruler,  were  liable  to  be  arraigned  and  corrected  by 
the  magisterium  of  the  Church,  an  utter  subversion  must  follow 
of  the  Divinely-ordained  scheme  of  government.  The  temporal 
power  would  be  neutralized  and  absorbed  by  the  spiritual. 

A  tendency  towards  anomalies  of  this  kind  was  early  mani- 
fested in  the  dealings  of  the  Papacy  with  the  great  monar- 
chies of  Europe.  For  instance,  Innocent  III.,  in  the  year  1199, 
attempted  to  impose  his  arbitration  on  the  kings  of  France  and 
England,  under  the  plea  that  peace  was  necessary  in  order  that 
they  might  turn  their  combined  arms  against  the  infidel.  On 
this  occasion  the  Pontiff  explained  at  length,  in  a  letter  to  the 
Gallican  bishops,  that  lie  did  not  pretend  to  adjudicate  dis- 
puted questions  about  feudal  rights,  but  claimed  to  decide  "  con- 
cerning sin, — the  censure  of  which  belongs,  beyond  all  doubt, 
to  us,  and  we  are  bound  to  exercise  it  in  respect  of  all  persons 
whatsoever."  *  He  founds  this  claim  upon  the  precept  of  our 
Lord,  "  If  thy  brother  trespass  against  thee,  go  and  tell  him  his 
fault,"  &c.  ..."  And  if  he  neglect  to  hear  them,  tell  it  unto  the 
Church ;  but  if  he  neglect  to  hear  the  Church,  let  him  be  unto 
thee  as  an  heathen  man  and  a  publican."  "  Let  not  the  king, 
then,"  continues  Innocent,  "  account  it  injurious  to  his  dignity 
to  submit  himself  to  the  judgment  of  the  Apostolic  See  in  this 
matter,  after  the  example  of  Valentinian,  Theodosius,  and  other 
illustrious  princes.  For  we  do  not  rely  on  any  human  constitu- 
tion, but  on  the  Divine  law ;  our  authority  is  not  from  man,  but 
from  God.  No  man  of  sane  mind  is  ignorant  that  it  appertains 
to  our  office  to  correct  any  and  every  Christian  in  respect  of 
mortal  sin;  and  if  he  should  despise  our  correction,  to  enforce  it 
by  means  of  ecclesiastical  penalties."  t  The  right  thus  insisted 
on  to  pronounce  and  execute  judgment  in  all  cases  "  in  respect 
of  sin,"  gave  an  incalculable  advantage  to  the  ecclesiastical  over 
the  temporal  authority.  Any  intrusion  of  the  lay  element  into 
the  spiritual  domain  was  an  act  of  sacrilege — of  impious  rebellion 
against  the  Divine  economy ;  whereas,  on  the  other  hand,  the 


*  See  Decretal.  Greg.  IX.,  Lib.  ii.  Tit. 
i.  cap.  13,  Novit. 

t  "  Quiim  enim  non  human  in  consti- 
tution!, sed  Divinse  legi  potius  inni- 
tamur,  quia  potestas  nostra  non  cat  ex 


homiue  sed  ex  Deo;    nullus   qui   sit  I  cere.' 


sanse  mentis  ignorat  quin  ad  officium 
nostrum  spectet  de  quocumque  mortali 
peccato  corripere  quemlibet  Christianum, 
et  si  correctionem  contempserit,  ipsum 
per  districtionem  ecclesiastical  coer- 


58  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  INTKOD. 

Pope  possessed  the  means  of  exercising,  though  indirectly,  un- 
limited jurisdiction  in  things  temporal ;  he  might  interpose  in 
the  concerns  of  civil  government  as  often  as  he  judged  it  neces- 
sary either  for  the  personal  welfare  of  the  sovereign  or  for  the 
general  interests  of  the  Church.  This  extraordinary  system — 
which  in  the  great  war  of  Investitures  had  triumphed  over  the 
combined  antagonism  of  the  proudest  dynasties  of  Europe — was 
destined  to  receive  its  death-blow  in  France.  The  crisis  arrived 
in  the  opening  years  of  the  fourteenth  century.  The  events 
which  then  occurred  were  of  extreme  gravity,  not  only  as  regards 
the  history  of  the  relations  between  Church  and  State  in  France, 
but  as  practically  decisive  of  the  entire  question  between  secular 
and  Pontifical  authority  throughout  the  world. 

Philip  the  Fair  and  Pope  Boniface  VIII.,  the  principal  com- 
batants on  this  memorable  occasion,  were  well  matched,  both  in 
point  of  ability  and  resolution;  each  alike  confident  of  the 
justice  of  his  cause ;  the  one  no  less  determined  to  establish 
the  independence  of  his  throne  and  temporal  sovereignty 
than  the  other  to  uphold  what  he  considered  the  indefeasible 
liberties  of  the  Church,  and  the  supremacy  of  its  "  magisteriuin  " 
over  all  orders  and  ranks  of  Christians. 

The  Pope,  however,  laboured  under  one  disadvantage,  and  it 
was  fatal.  The  principles  for  which  he  strove  were  indeed  the 
very  same  that  his  predecessors,  Gregory  VII.,  Alexander  III., 
Innocent  III.,  Innocent  IV.,  Gregory  IX.,  had  illustrated  with 
such  marvellous  success.  But  the  times  were  not  the  same ;  the 
tide  of  public  feeling  had  turned,  and  was  setting  powerfully  in  an 
opposite  direction ;  and  whereas  the  decrees  of  former  Pontiffs 
had  been  accepted  with  unreasoning  submission,  Boniface  was 
destined  to  be  met  by  reckless  criticism,  insolent  rebuke,  and 
even  by  vindictive  violence.  Moreover  his  personal  character 
was  unhappily  such  as  to  aggravate  the  difficulties  of  his  situa- 
tion. Arrogant,  irritable,  peremptory,  headstrong,  his  every 
movement  fanned  the  flame  of  strife,  and  infused  into  it  a  bitter- 
ness which  forbade  the  hope  of  accommodation.  Such  has  been 
the  case  repeatedly  in  the  most  eventful  conjunctures  of  the 
world's  history.  Inability  to  read  the  signs  of  the  times,  want 
of  tact,  want  of  calm  judgment,  of  moderation,  of  perception  of 
the  proper  moment,  manner,  and  limits  of  concession, — these  are 
faults  which  have  proved  the  ruin  of  empires  quite  as  often  as 


BONIFACE  VIII.  AND  PHILIP  THE  FAIR.  59 

misdeeds  of  deeper  dye ;  and  it  was  through  such  faults  that  the 
vast  fabric  of  Roman  supremacy  in  things  temporal  was  shaken 
to  its  centre  by  the  despotic  monarchy  of  France. 

With  regard  to  the  original  ground  of  quarrel,  Philip  was 
clearly  in  the  wrong;  for  his  favourite  tax,  the  "maltote,"  having 
never  been  sanctioned  by  the  Pope,  could  not  be  imposed  upon 
the  clergy  according  to  the  existing  provisions  of  the  law.*  In 
condemning  this  irregular  proceeding,  then  (by  the  bull  "  Clericis 
laicos"),t  Boniface  did  no  more  than  enunciate  a  principle  which 
was  confessedly  in  force,  although  it  had  been  repeatedly  violated 
in  practice.  But  the  tone  and  language  which  he  employed  in 
doing  this  were  so  extravagant,  that  the  King  could  hardly 
recede  without  compromising  his  dignity.  He  persisted,  there- 
fore, in  asserting  his  right,  as  a  matter  of  principle,  to  tax  the 
clergy ;  but  he  argued  a  priori,  as  if  there  had  been  no  legislative 
enactments  in  existence  on  the  subject.  "  The  kings  of  France," 
he  said,  "  have  always  possessed  the  power  of  taking  necessary 
measures  for  the  defence  and  preservation  of  the  realm  against 
its  enemies.  The  Church  does  not  consist  of  the  clergy  only, 
but  of  the  laity  also.  Christ  purchased  freedom  from  sin  and 
from  the  yoke  of  the  ancient  law  for  clergy  and  laity  alike; 
and  therefore  the  clergy  have  no  right  to  appropriate  to  them- 
selves exclusively  that  liberty  which  belongs  to  the  whole 
Christian  body.  Special  privileges  have  indeed  been  granted 
to  the  ministers  of  the  Church  by  the  Popes,  at  the  instance  or 
with  the  consent  of  secular  princes ;  but  such  privileges  cannot 


*  The  third  Lateran  Council,  A.D. 
1179,  prohibited  the  lay  magistrate 
from  assessing  on  the  Church  or  her 
ministers  any  portion  of  the  fiscal  or 
municipal  duties  levied  upon  other 
citizens  (Labbe,  Condi.,  torn,  x.)  This 
was  confirmed  by  the  fourth  Lateran 
Council  in  1215,  which,  however,  per- 
mitted the  clergy  to  make  voluntary 
contributions  for  State  purposes,  with 
the  previous  approbation  of  the  bishops 
and  of  the  Pope  (Can.  XLIV.,  Labbe, 
torn.  xi.  See  also  the  Decretal  of 
Alexander  IV.,  "  Quia  nonnulli,"  Lib. 
iii.  Tit.  xxiii.  cap.  1).  Corresponding 


national  revenue  was  derived  in  process 
of  time,  under  one  pretext  or  another, 
from  the  clergy;  insomuch  that  the 
payment  of  "  decimes  "  became  an  an- 
nual charge  upon  their  incomes  in 
France.  Yet  this  was  presumed  in  all 
cases  to  be  spontaneous,  an  act  of  libe- 
rality and  bounty  suggested  by  the 
authorities  of  the  Church  herself;  nor 
could  it  be  enforced  without  the  ex- 
press consent  of  the  episcopate. 

t  Feb.  24,  1296.  This  bull  is  in- 
serted in  the  Corpus  Juris  Canonici, 
Sext.  Decretal.,  Lib.  iii.  Tit.  xxiii.  cap. 
3.  It  was  revoked  by  the  Council  of 


enactments  were  made  by  many  pro-  i  Vienne  under  Clement  V.  in  1311.   See 

vincial  Synods.    Cf.  Thomassin,  Vet.  et  Clement.,  lab.  iii.  Tit.  xvii.,  "  De  im- 

Nov.  Eccles.  Discip.,  III.  Lib.  i.  cap.  42.  m imitate  Ecclesiaruin." 
Nevertheless,  a  large  proportion  of  the  ! 


60  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  INTROD. 

deprive  the  sovereign  of  what  is  indispensably  required  for  the 
good  government  and  integrity  of  his  dominions.  The  clergy 
are  subjects  of  the  crown,  members  of  the  body  politic,  like  other 
men ;  and  are  in  consequence  bound  to  contribute  towards  its 
preservation.  It  is  contrary  to  the  law  of  nature  to  excuse  them 
from  this  obligation,  while  they  are  permitted  to  waste  the  pro- 
perty of  the  Church  in  luxuries  of  dress  and  equipage,  in  banquets 
and  other  worldly  vanities."  These  were  truths  undeniable  in 
themselves,  but  inconclusive  in  the  case  in  hand;  for  it  was 
a  notorious  fact  that  the  clergy  were  not,  with  respect  to  liabi- 
lity to  State  taxation,  on  the  same  footing  with  other  classes ; 
that  they  were  exempted  from  it  by  long  continued  usage,  resting 
on  the  canons  of  Councils,  which  had  been  recognised  and  con- 
firmed by  the  State  itself.  The  gist  of  Philip's  argument  was, 
that  they  ought  not  to  enjoy  such  exemption ;  in  other  words, 
that  the  legislation  of  past  ages  was  mistaken,  and  required 
amendment.  His  object  was  to  make  a  radical  change  in  the 
system  as  it  stood;  to  do  away  with  all  distinction  between 
clergy  and  laity,  so  far  as  concerned  the  duty  of  replenishing 
the  public  exchequer.  This  might  be  a  politic  enterprise  in  the 
interest  of  royalty ;  but  it  was  one  which  the  Pope,  from  his 
point  of  view,  might  not  unfairly  resist. 

Moved,  however,  by  the  representations  of  the  Archbishop 
of  Keims  and  his  clergy,  who  anxiously  deprecated  a  collision 
between  the  Church  and  the  civil  power,*  Boniface,  in  a  second 
bull,t  put  forth  a  conciliatory  explanation  of  the  first.  His 
prohibition,  he  said,  was  meant  to  apply  to  compulsory  imposts, 
not  to  voluntary  contributions.  It  did  not  include,  again,  the 
customary  payments  due  from  bishops  and  other  ecclesiastics 
in  respect  of  their  temporal  fiefs  held  under  the  Crown.  Nor 
did  it  touch  the  case  of  a  great  and  sudden  exigency,  when 
all  the  resources  of  the  kingdom  were  required  to  repel  the 
invasion  of  a  foreign  foe.  These  concessions,  though  some- 
what tardy,  were  graciously  received  by  Philip;  he  expressed 
himself  satisfied,  and  the  misunderstanding  was  apparently  at 
an  end. 

But  a  fresh  breach  was  occasioned  not  long  afterwards  by  the 

*  See  the  "  Supplicatio  facta  Papse  per  Archiepisc.  Kemens.  et  suffraganeos 
suos,"  Dupuy,  Preuves,  &c.,  i.  p.  26. 
t  "Ineffabilifl  amoris,"  Feb.  7,  1297. 


INTROD.  BEENARD  DE  SAISSET.  61 

affair  of  Bernard  de  Saisset,  Bishop  of  Pamiers ;  and  here  the  con- 
sequences were  more  serious.  Boniface  had  erected  Pamiers, 
heretofore  a  convent  of  Canons  Kegular,  into  an  Episcopal  See  ; 
and  had  nominated  Bernard  de  Saisset  the  first  bishop,  by  his 
own  sole  authority,  without  consulting  with  the  Metropolitan  of 
the  province,  or  the  king.  This  proceeding  Philip  allowed  to 
pass  in  silence.  The  new  prelate,  an  ambitious,  violent  man, 
assumed  the  temporal  lordship  of  Pamiers,  to  the  prejudice  of 
the  Comte  de  Foix,  to  whom  it  had  been  granted  by  the  Crown. 
Finding  the  Count  too  strong  for  him,  he  sought  assistance  from 
the  Pope ;  and  Boniface  appealed  to  Philip  to  support  the  re- 
fractory bishop  against  his  lawful  superior.  It  is  not  surprising 
that  the  monarch  declined  a  request  so  totally  opposed  to  all  the 
principles  of  feudalism.  Upon  this  Boniface  proceeded,  in  a 
spirit  of  singular  bad  taste  and  gratuitous  insolence,  to  appoint 
Saisset,  whom  the  king  could  not  but  regard  as  a  rebellious 
vassal,  his  legate  or  nuncio  at  the  court  of  France.  In  this 
quality  it  appears  that  Saisset  was  guilty  of  offensive  and 
even  treasonable  language  against  Philip ;  who,  losing  patience, 
caused  the  bishop  to  be  suddenly  arrested,  and  committed  to 
the  custody  of  his  Metropolitan,  the  Archbishop  of  Narbonne. 
A  special  envoy,  Pierre  Flotte,  was  then  despatched  to  Home, 
to  demand  that  the  prisoner  might  be  forthwith  degraded 
from  the  episcopal  office  and  stripped  of  every  privilege  be- 
longing to  the  clerical  order,  so  that  the  king  might  cause 
justice  to  be  done  upon  him  by  the  secular  arm,  as  an  incor- 
rigible offender. 

Philip  damaged  his  cause  by  these  precipitate  acts.  To  arrest 
the  Pope's  nuncio  was  a  violation  of  the  law  of  nations,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  acknowledged  privileges  of  the  clergy  ;  and  what 
could  be  more  palpably  unjust  than  to  summon  the  Pope  to 
degrade  his  own  representative,  upon  a  mere  vague  charge  un- 
substantiated by  proof  ?  Boniface  was  fully  justified  in  resisting 
the  demand ;  and  had  his  resistance  been  conducted  with  mode- 
ration, there  is  reason  to  believe  that  it  would  have  terminated 
in  his  favour.  As  it  was,  he  allowed  himself  to  be  hurried  by 
resentment  into  a  series  of  measures  which,  after  exposing  him 
to  unparalleled  indignities,  at  length  brought  his  life  to  a 
pitiable  close. 

On  one  and  the  same  day,  December  5,  1301,  the  angry 


62  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  TNTROD. 

Pontiff  despatched  five  separate  bulls  or  rescripts  to  France. 
The  first  contained  a  request  or  command  to  Philip  to  set  the 
Bishop  of  Pamiers  immediately  at  liberty,  to  restore  to  him 
all  his  possessions  which  had  been  seized  on  his  arrest,  and 
to  permit  him  to  proceed  freely  to  the  Pope's  presence  at 
Home.  This  document  was  not  intemperately  worded,  though  it 
intimated  that  the  king  had  incurred  the  sentence  of  excom- 
munication by  laying  violent  hands  upon  a  bishop.  But  it  was 
accompanied  by  others  couched  in  a  more  trenchant  style.  By 
the  "  Salvator  mundi,"  Boniface  revoked  all  the  privileges  which 
he  had  granted  to  Philip  (such  as  the  "regale"  in  certain 
churches,  "  declines "  to  be  levied  on  the  clergy,  &c.),  alleging 
that  they  had  been  scandalously  abused.  The  "  Ausculta,  fili," 
commenced  with  an  unqualified  assertion  of  the  subordination 
of  the  temporal  authority  to  the  spiritual.  "  God  has  set  me, 
though  unworthy,  above  kings  and  kingdoms,  having  imposed 
upon  me  the  yoke  of  Apostolic  servitude,  to  root  out  and 
to  pull  down,  to  destroy  and  to  throw  down,  to  build  and  to 
plant,  in  His  name.  Wherefore  let  no  man  persuade  you 
that  you  have  no  superior,  or  that  you  are  not  subject  to  the 
supreme  head  of  the  ecclesiastical  hierarchy.  He  who  thinks  so 
is  a  madman,  and,  if  he  persists  in  his  error,  is  convicted  as  an 
infidel."  The  Pope  then  enters  on  an  elaborate  detail  of  his 
complaints  against  Philip.  "Although  it  is  certain  that  the 
nomination  to  all  benefices  belongs  to  the  Pope,*  and  that  you 
can  have  no  right  to  any  such  patronage  without  the  consent  of 
the  Holy  See,  you  oppose  our  collations,  and  claim  to  act  as 
judge  in  your  own  cause.  You  drag  before  your  tribunals  the 
bishops  and  other  clergy  of  your  kingdom,  both  regular  and 
secular,  even  for  matters  concerning  property  which  they  do  not 
hold  from  you  in  fief.  You  exact  from  them  tenths  and  other 
imposts,  although  laymen  have  no  authority  whatever  over  the 
clergy.  You  hinder  the  bishops  from  employing  the  spiritual 
sword  against  offenders,  and  from  exercising  their  jurisdiction 
over  conventual  houses.  You  observe  no  moderation  in  disposing 
of  the  revenues  of  vacant  episcopal  sees,  which  you  call,  by  an 
abuse,  the  '  droit  de  regale.'  You  squander  these  revenues,  and 

*  This  sweeping  assumption  seems  to  have  been  first  made  by  Pope  Cle- 
ment IV.  in  1267.  See  Sext.  Decretal,  Lib.  iii.  Tit.  iv.,  "De  prasbendis  et 
diguitatibus,"  cap.  2. 


INTROD. 


PHILIP  CONVOKES  THE  ESTATES. 


63 


then  turn  into  plunder  what  was  intended  as  a  means  of  preserv- 
ing them  intact."  He  announces,  in  conclusion,  that,  out  of 
pastoral  solicitude  for  his  soul's  health,  and  for  the  reputation 
of  a  kingdom  which  is  dear  to  him,  he  has  summoned  the 
archbishops  and  bishops,  the  abbots,  and  superior  clergy  of 
France,  to  appear  before  him  at  Rome,  that  he  may  there 
deliberate  upon  the  affairs  of  his  realm  with  persons  devoted  to 
its  interests,  and  whom  he  (the  king)  could  have  no  reason 
to  suspect. 

The  bull  convoking  the  French  prelates  and  clergy  to  assemble 
in  Council  at  Rome  was  expedited  on  the  same  day. 

The  "  Ausculta,  fili,"  convinced  Philip  that  the  real  drift 
of  the  Pope's  policy  was  nothing  less  than  to  destroy  the  sub- 
stantive reality  of  monarchical  power ;  and  that  he  must  either 
prepare  to  fight  the  battle  to  the  last  extremity,  or  consent 
to  hold  his  crown  as  a  dependency  of  the  Holy  See.  He  took 
his  measures  with  characteristic  vigour.  He  caused  the  Nuncio, 
Jacques  des  Nbrmands,  who  had  brought  the  obnoxious  bulls  to 
France,  to  be  conducted  under  a  guard  to  the  frontier,  in  com- 
pany with  the  Bishop  of  Pamiers,  whom  he  banished  for  ever  from 
the  realm.  The  "  Ausculta,  fili "  (or,  as  some  historians  think, 
an  abridgment  of  it,  expressed  in  still  more  insulting  terms)  *  was 
publicly  burnt  at  Paris.  And  lastly,  on  the  10th  of  April,  1302, 
the  king  held  a  grand  Parliament,  or  meeting  of  the  three  estates 
of  the  kingdom,  in  the  cathedral  of  Notre  Dame,  and  frankly 
asked  the  advice  of  his  people  in  the  critical  state  of  his  relations 
with  the  Holy  See.  Was  it  their  opinion  that  the  sovereign  was 
subject  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  not  only  in  spirituals,  but  as  to 
the  conduct  of  his  temporal  government  ?  Was  the  kingdom  of 
France  an  independent  monarchy,  or  was  it  held  in  feudal  vassal- 
age from  the  Pope  ?  To  this  question  the  nobles  and  the  deputies 
of  the  commons  responded,  with  unanimous  enthusiasm,  that 
the  crown  was  held  of  God  alone,  and  that  they  were  ready  to 
sacrifice  both  property  and  life  rather  than  submit  to  the  out- 
rageous usurpations  of  Pope  Boniface,  even  if  the  king  himself 
were  not  disposed  to  withstand  them.  The  clergy,  however, 


*  See  H.  Martin,  Hist,  de  Fr.,  torn.  iv. 
p.  429.  This  '•  smaller  bull "  was  in 
all  probability  not  from  the  hand  of 
Boniface,  but  substituted  for  the  genuine 


bull  for  circulation  in  France,  for  the 
sake  of  inflaming  the  popular  resent- 
ment. Guettee,  Hist,  de  I'Egl,  de  Fr., 
torn.  vi.  p.  249. 


64  THE  GALLIC  AN  CHURCH.  INTROD. 

hesitated.  They  were  not  incapable,  as  they  had  often  shown, 
of  resisting  the  unconstitutional  claims  and  exactions  of  the 
Popes ;  but  on  the  other  hand,  they  entertained  no  small  appre- 
hension of  the  despotic  character  of  Philip,  and  shrunk  from 
the  prospect  of  a  struggle  which  might  possibly  end  in  a  violent 
severance  of  the  National  Church  from  the  centre  of  unity.  At 
first  they  endeavoured  to  evade  a  direct  reply  ;  urging  that  the 
Pope's  language  had  been  misunderstood,  and  that  he  by  no 
means  intended  to  assume  any  supremacy  in  things  temporal  over 
the  Crown  and  Government  in  France.  This  explanation,  how- 
ever, was  not  accepted ;  and  such  was  the  prevailing  exaspera- 
tion against  Boniface,  that  the  representatives  of  the  clergy 
were  constrained  at  length  to  give  in  their  adhesion  to  the  votes 
of  the  other  two  orders.  They  entreated  the  king  to  allow  them 
to  proceed  to  Rome  according  to  the  Pope's  citation ;  but  this 
was  positively  refused.  They  then  addressed  a  pathetic  letter 
to  the  Pope,  to  acquaint  him  of  the  imminent  danger  of  a  schism 
between  France  and  Rome,  and  of  a  rupture  between  the  clerical 
order  and  the  people.  "  The  laity  shun  us,"  they  said,  "  and 
exclude  us  from  their  society,  as  if  we  sought  to  betray  them. 
They  despise  the  censures  of  the  Church,  by  whomsoever  pro- 
nounced, and  use  every  precaution  to  make  them  ineffectual. 
In  this  extremity  we  have  no  resource  but  to  appeal  to  your 
prudence ;  and  we  implore  you,  with  tears  in  our  eyes,  to 
preserve  the  ancient  union  of  the  Church  with  the  State,  and 
to  consult  our  safety  by  revoking  the  orders  you  have  sent  us  to 
repair  to  your  presence."  Boniface,  in  reply,  rebuked  them 
for  their  pusillanimity  in  yielding  to  the  dictation  of  a  tyrannical 
prince  and  his  council,  and  threatened  them  with  punishment  if 
they  disobeyed  his  summons  to  Rome.  "  To  deny  the  subjection 
of  the  temporal  power  to  the  spiritual,"  said  he,  "  and  to  assert 
that  they  are  independent  powers,  is  nothing  less  than  to  set 
up  two  contradictory  principles,  like  the  Manichean  heretics." 

An  attempt  was  now  made  to  adjust  the  quarrel  by  means  of 
negotiation  and  mutual  explanation.  Four  French  prelates 
were  despatched  to  Rome  for  this  purpose.  The  Pope,  receiving 
them  in  full  consistory,  expatiated  u\  a  bland  and  conciliatory 
tone  on  his  anxious  desire  to  preserve  the  harmony  which  had 
existed  in  all  ages  between  the  realm  of  France  and  the  Apos- 
tolic See.  To  pretend  that  he  had  ever  laid  claim  to  any 


INTROD.        PAPAL  AUTHORITY  OVER  THE  CONSCIENCE.  65 

superiority  over  Philip  as  to  temporal  jurisdiction  was,  he  de- 
clared, a  malicious  falsehood,  invented  by  Pierre  Flotte  for  his 
own  wicked  purposes.  He  had  never  advanced  any  such  sense- 
less opinion,  well  knowing  that  the  power  of  temporal  and  of 
spiritual  government  are  alike  ordained  of  Grod.  "  At  the  same 
time,"  continued  Boniface,  "  the  King  cannot  deny  that  he  owes 
submission  to  the  Roman  Pontiff  in  respect  of  sin' *  (ratione 
peccati). 

This  phrase,  "  in  respect  of  sin,"  so  frequent  in  the  mouths 
of  the  Popes  of  the  middle  age,  contains  the  key  to  their  whole 
line  of  policy  with  regard  to  the  question  in  dispute.  It  is  true 
that  they  did  not  claim  any  direct  jurisdiction  over  princes  as 
to  their  administration  in  things  temporal;  but  indirectly,  in 
virtue  of  their  functions  as  supreme  directors  in  matters  of  con- 
science, their  pretensions  amounted  nearly,  if  not  altogether,  to 
the  same  thing.f  Kings,  in  common  with  all  other  Christians, 
were  responsible  to  the  Church  "  in  respect  of  sin" — that  is,  in 
respect  of  her  right  to  guide  the  conscience.  Upon  this  plea  it 
is  obvious  that  the  Pope  might  claim  to  arbitrate  in  any  and 
every  case  within  the  range  of  human  action.  It  belonged  to 
him  to  judge  how  far,  under  any  given  circumstances,  the  parties 
concerned  had  incurred  the  guilt  and  penalties  of  sin.  The  keys 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  were  in  his  custody  ;  it  was  for  him 
to  bind  or  to  loose,  to  condemn  or  to  absolve,  according  to  his 
view  of  the  requirements  of  due  spiritual  discipline.  As  a 
dogma  of  the  Catholic  Church,  this  was  incontestable  in  the 
abstract ;  the  existence  of  such  power  was  universally  admitted, 
and  was  believed  to  reside  essentially  in  the  person  of  the  Pope. 
But  its  application,  with  reference  to  limits,  method,  and  detail, 
was  a  matter  of  infinite  delicacy  and  difficulty.  The  Pope  might 
exaggerate,  misconstrue,  or  abuse  this  power ;  and  if  he  should 


*  Of.  De  Marca,  De  Concord.,  Lib.  iv. 
cap.  16,  §  4. 

f  Even  the  Gallican  Gerson  main- 
tains, in  this  sense,  the  full  extent  of 
the  Pontifical  prerogative.  ''  We  do  not 
affirm  that  kings  and  princes  hold  their 
dominions  from  the  Pope  and  the  Church, 
so  that  the  Pope  is  supreme  over  all  in 
point  of  civil  and  judicial  administra- 


tion, a  pretension  wrongly  ascribed  by  j  Auctor.,  cap.  27. 
some  to  Boniface  VIII.    Nevertheless, 

VOL.  I. 


all  men,  including  princes,  are  amenable 
to  tli  e  Pope,  in  so  fur  as  they  may  abuse 
their  temporal  jurisdiction  by  offences 
against  the  law  of  God  and  nature  : 
and  this  supremacy  may  be  called  a 
directive  and  ordinative  power  rather 
tban  civil  or  judicial." — Gcrs.,  Serm.  de 
pace  et  unione  GriKcorum,  Opp.,  torn.  ii. 
p.  147.  Cf.  Fenelon,  De  Summ.  Pont. 


66 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


INTEOD. 


do  so  to  an  exorbitant  or  scandalous  degree,  a  hostile  reaction 
was  sooner  or  later  inevitable.  The  elements  of  such  a  reaction 
had  long  been  in  course  of  preparation  both  in  France  and  else- 
where ;  and  the  actual  outburst  was  merely  a  question  of  time. 
The  French  envoys  failed  to  obtain  any  concession  from 
Boniface  as  to  the  convocation  of  the  Council  at  Home.  It  was 
held  accordingly  at  the  time  appointed ;  and  was  attended,  in 
defiance  of  the  King's  prohibition,  by  four  archbishops,  thirty- 
five  bishops,  and  six  abbots,  of  the  Gallican  Church.  Imme- 
diately afterwards  appeared  the  famous  constitution,  "Unam 
sanctam "  * — a  document  which  in  style  and  language  was  in- 
sufferably provoking,  although  in  point  of  doctrine  it  contained 
nothing  that  had  not  been  repeatedly  advanced  before,  and 
expressed,  indeed,  the  common  belief  of  Catholics  at  that  day. 
It  commences  by  asserting  the  unity  of  the  Church  as  the  body 
of  Christ,  and  that  it  is  governed  under  Christ  by  St.  Peter  and 
his  successors.  Then  follows  a  quotation  of  the  well-worn  passage 
from  St.  Bernard,  concerning  the  "two  swords"  and  their 
mutual  relations.t  The  Bull  goes  on  to  state  that  it  belongs 
to  the  spiritual  power  to  establish  the  temporal,  and  to  judge  it 
if  it  fails  in  its  duty ;  according  to  the  words  of  the  Almighty 
by  the  prophet,  "  Behold,  I  have  set  thee  over  nations  and  king- 
doms," &c.  J  When  the  temporal  power  errs,  it  must  be  judged 
by  the  spiritual ;  when  an  inferior  spiritual  power  transgresses, 
it  must  be  judged  by  its  superior  ;  but  if  the  supreme  authority 
shall  be  in  fault,  it  is  accountable  to  God  alone ;  it  cannot  be 
reached  by  human  judgment,  as  the  Apostle  testifies — "  He  that 
is  spiritual  judgeth  all  things,  yet  he  himself  is  judged  of  no 
man."§  This  authority  is  not  human,  though  exercised  by 
human  hands ;  but  rather  Divine,  having  been  divinely  granted 
to  Peter  and  his  successors  in  the  words,  "  Whatsoever  thou 
shalt  bind  on  earth,  &c.  Whosoever  resists  the  authority  which 


*  Extravag.  Commun.,  Lib.  i.  Tit. 
viii.  cap.  1,  "  De  majoritate  et  obe- 
dientia." 

t  See  supra,  p.  55. 

j  Jeremiah  i.  10. 

§  This  is  a  literal  citation  from 
Hugo  de  S.  Victor,  De  Sacram.  Lib.  ii. 
p.  2,  cap.  4 :  "  Spiritualis  potestas  ter- 
renam  potestatem  et  instituere  habet, 
ut  sit,  et  judicare,  si  bona  non  fuerit ; 
ipsa  vero  a  Deo  primum  instituta  est  ; 


et  cum  deriat,  a  solo  Deo  judicari  potest, 
sicut  est  scriptum,  spiritualis  homo 
dijudicat  omnia  et  ipse  a  nemine  judi- 
catur." — 1  Cor.  ii.  1 5.  The  famous  canon 
"Si  Papa"  (Dist.  40,  cap.  6)  incul- 
cates the  same  doctrine,  expressly  ex- 
cepting, however,  the  case  of  a  JPope 
guilty  of  heresy :  "  Cunctos  judicaturus 
a  nemine  est  judicandus,  nisi  depre- 
hendatur  a  fide  devius." 


INTBOD.  BULL  "UNAM  SANCTAM.'  67 

God  has  thus  constituted,  resisteth  the  ordinance  of  God.  To 
deny  this  is  nothing  less  than  the  Manichean  heresy  of  two  co- 
ordinate principles.  Wherefore  we  declare,  define,  and  pro- 
nounce, that  it  is  necessary  to  the  salvation  of  every  human 
being  to  be  subject  to  the  Eoman  Pontiff."  This  conclusion 
was  not  so  formidable,  after  all,  as  might  have  been  expected 
from  the  premises.  From  such  an  unqualified  statement  of  the 
subjection  of  earthly  authority  to  spiritual,  the  Pope  might  have 
drawn  the  inference  that  civil  rulers  are  answerable  to  the 
Church,  and  to  the  judgment  of  its  head,  for  the  entire  conduct 
of  their  ordinary  government.  Instead  of  this,  he  contents  him- 
self with  a  general  declaration  of  the  necessity  of  obedience  to 
the  Apostolic  See — a  sentiment  which  in  that  age  was  disputed 
by  no  man,  but  to  which,  nevertheless,  different  individuals 
began  to  attach  different  meanings. 

The  bull  "  Unam  sanctam"  was  followed  by  a  sentence  of  ex- 
communication against  all  persons,  of  whatever  degree,  who 
should  molest,  despoil,  or  impede  those  who  desired  to  proceed 
to  or  return  from  Kome.  This  was,  of  course,  directed  against 
Philip,  although  it  did  not  designate  that  prince  by  name.  He 
had  seized  and  confiscated  the  property  of  the  bishops  who  chose 
to  obey  the  Papal  summons  contrary  to  the  commands  of  their 
temporal  sovereign. 

Philip  replied  to  these  denunciations  by  holding  a  second 
great  Council  on  the  1st  of  December,  1302,  when  it  was  enacted 
that  no  French  subject  could  leave  the  kingdom  without  the 
King's  consent,  under  pain  of  imprisonment  and  forfeiture  of 
goods ;  and  a  renewed  prohibition  was  published  against  export- 
ing from  France  money,  jewels,  horges,  and  munitions  of  war. 

The  crisis  was  evidently  at  hand.  But  before  resorting  to 
extremities,  Boniface  sent  the  Cardinal  Le  Moine,  by  birth  a 
Frenchman,  as  his  legate  to  Philip,  charged  to  make  certain 
propositions  by  way  of  satisfaction  to  the  Apostolic  See.  The 
following  were  the  principal  articles  insisted  on: — That  the 
King  should  revoke  his  prohibition  to  the  clergy  to  proceed  to 
Kome;  and  should  acknowledge  that  the  Pope  has  the  right 
to  nominate  to  all  benefices,  to  dispose  of  their  revenues,  and  to 
levy  duties  upon  them.  He  was  further  to  own  that  no  sove- 
reign can  lawfully  seize  the  property  of  the  Church,  nor  summon 
ecclesiastics  to  lay  tribunals,  either  in  personal  actions  or  in 

F  2 


68  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  INTEOD. 

regard  to  estates  which  were  not  held  of  him  in  fief.  Moreover, 
he  was  to  engage  to  correct  the  prevalent  abuses  of  the  droit  de 
regale,  and  to  preserve  the  revenues  of  vacant  churches  for  the 
future  incumbents.  He  was  to  remove  all  hindrances  to  the  due 
exercise  of  ecclesiastical  discipline.  He  was  to  repair  the  evil 
which  he  had  committed  by  debasing  the  coinage  of  the 
realm ;  and,  finally,  he  was  to  treat  the  city  of  Lyons  and  its 
territory  as  independent  of  the  crown  of  France.  It  was  not 
likely,  and  probably  was  not  expected,  that  a  prince  of  Philip's 
imperious  temper  would  accept  such  terms  in  their  full  extent. 
He  replied,  however,  in  a  tone  of  moderation.  It  was  from  no 
want  of  respect  for  the  Church  that  he  had  forbidden  the  pre- 
lates to  quit  France,  but  simply  by  reason  of  circumstances 
which  appeared  to  him  of  a  dangerous  nature.  He  was  willing 
to  restore  the  property  of  those  who  had  gone  to  Borne  without 
his  permission.  Far  from  wishing  to  obstruct  the  liberty  of  the 
spiritual  sword,  he  was  prepared  to  support  it,  so  long  as  it 
observed  the  bounds  of  law  and  established  usage.  If  any  of 
his  officers  had  abused  their  powers  in  this  respect,  he  was  ready 
to  punish  them  and  to  rectify  their  mistakes.  If  any  one  had 
been  wronged  in  the  administration  of  the  droit  de  regale,  he 
offered  to  satisfy  him  by  reimbursement.  With  reference  to  the 
disposal  of  benefices,  the  seizure  of  temporalities,  and  the  cita- 
tion of  ecclesiastics  before  the  civil  courts,  he  had  followed,  and 
would  always  follow,  the  customs  generally  received  in  the  realm. 
As  to  the  alterations  in  the  coinage,  he  had  been  forced  to  adopt 
them  by  the  necessities  of  the  State,  but  he  had  already  taken 
steps  for  remedying  the  evils  caused  by  that  measure.  Finally, 
he  declared  himself  sincerely  desirous  to  maintain  the  ancient 
union  between  the  Koman  See  and  France,  and  he  entreated  the 
Pope  not  to  imperil  it  by  attacking  the  liberties  and  privileges 
of  the  Gallican  Church. 

We  have  in  this  last  sentence  one  of  the  earliest  symptoms 
of  that  wilful  misapprehension  of  the  "  Gallican  liberties,"  which 
became  in  the  sequel  so  convenient  an  instrument  of  royal  des- 
potism. The  faults  of  Pope  Boniface  were  neither  few  nor 
small.  He  might  have  been  justly  accused  of  striving  to  exalt 
the  dominion  of  the  spiritual  power  to  a  pitch  incompatible  with 
the  rights  and  functions  of  the  crown ;  but  certainly  he  was  not 
chargeable  with  seeking  to  abridge  the  liberties  of  the  Church, 


INTBOD.  PHILIP  IMPEACHES  BONIFACE.  69 

as  they  were  then  established  by  general  usage.  It  was  the 
King,  not  the  Pope,  who  was  labouring  to  extinguish  the  immu- 
nities immemorially  enjoyed  by  the  ecclesiastical  order.  The 
"  liberty  of  the  Church,"  in  the  sense  in  which  it  was  invoked 
by  Philip  and  other  subsequent  monarchs  of  like  character, 
signified  in  reality  that  the  clergy,  instead  of  being  as  heretofore 
dependent  on  the  Pope,  were  to  be  practically  subject  to  the 
crown.  In  the  very  act  of  redressing  grievances  arising  from  a 
jurisdiction  which,  though  wrongly  exercised,  was  in  its  essence 
real  and  true,  they  substituted  for  it  the  yoke  of  another  juris- 
diction which  had  no  legitimate  foundation  whatever. 

The  professions  of  Philip  may  or  may  not  have  been  made 
with  perfect  sincerity.  In  any  case  they  ought  to  have  called 
forth  further  exertions  on  the  part  of  Boniface  to  effect  an 
understanding.  Instead  of  this,  he  now  ordered  his  legate  to 
excommunicate  the  king  by  name ;  including  in  the  sentence 
all  nobles,  prelates,  and  magistrates  who  might  support  or  coun- 
tenance him.  Philip,  unmoved  by  thunders  which  had  scared 
some  of  the  boldest  of  his  predecessors,  summoned  forthwith  his 
Council  at  the  Louvre,  and  caused  a  formal  act  of  accusation  to 
be  published  against  the  Pope,  charging  him  with  having  usurped 
his  office,  with  heresy,  with  simony,  infidelity,  and  other  mon- 
strous offences.  He  declared  his  intention  to  procure  with  all 
despatch  the  convocation  of  a  General  Council,  as  the  proper 
tribunal  to  take  cognizance  of  so  grave  a  cause,  and  appealed  to 
its  decision,  and  that  of  a  legitimate  Pope,  on  the  questions  in 
dispute.  The  ecclesiastics  present,  as  well  as  the  other  two 
orders,  signified  their  assent  to  this  impeachment  of  Boniface, 
though  they  expressed  their  belief  that  he  would  fully  clear 
himself  from  the  crimes  imputed  to  him.  Twenty-six  prelates, 
with  eleven  abbots,  signed  the  act  of  appeal ;  and  no  fewer  than 
nine  cardinals  concurred  in  the  measure. 

Boniface  repudiated  with  contemptuous  scorn  the  notion  that 
he  could  be  arraigned  judicially  before  a  General  Council. 
"  What?"  he  said,  "do  they  demand  a  Council  to  sit  in  judg- 
ment on  the  Pope  ?  No  Council  can  be  assembled  but  by  me, 
and  with  me."  Philip,  however,  urged  on  by  the  "  legistes," — 
a  class  rapidly  rising  into  power,  and  rancorous  in  its  hostility 
to  Boniface  and  the  Holy  See — persisted  in  his  scheme,  canvassed 
actively  for  support  in  Spain  and  other  foreign  countries,  and 


70  THE  GALLICAN  CHUECH.  INTEOD. 

sent  special  envoys  to  the  Italian  cardinals  to  secure  their 
adhesion  and  their  presence  at  the  forthcoming  Council,  which 
it  was  proposed  to  hold  at  Lyons.  Guillaume  de  Nogaret,  one 
of  the  most  unscrupulous  of  Philip's  councillors,  was  charged,  or 
charged  himself,  with  the  task  of  personally  summoning  the 
Pope  to  attend  at  the  appointed  time  and  place.  In  case  of 
resistance  to  this  mandate,  his  Holiness  was  to  be  forcibly  com- 
pelled to  submit. 

Boniface,  upon  this,  retired  from  Eome  to  Anagni,  and  pre- 
pared to  launch  against  his  adversary  that  most  tremendous 
bolt  of  the  Pontifical  artillery,  a  bull  releasing  Philip's  subjects 
from  their  allegiance,  and  declaring  him  deposed  from  the 
throne.  His  kingdom  was  bestowed  upon  Albert,  King  of 
the  Komans. 

This  document  was  to  have  been  solemnly  promulgated  in 
the  cathedral  of  Anagni  on  the  8th  of  September,  1303,  the 
festival  of  the  Nativity  of  the  Virgin.  But  on  the  day  pre- 
ceding, Nogaret,  who  had  prevailed  upon  the  principal  citizens 
of  Anagni  to  favour  his  design,  entered  the  town  at  the  head  of 
300  soldiers,  invaded  the  palace,  and  presented  himself  abruptly 
before  the  aged  Pontiff,  whom  he  found  seated  on  his  throne, 
and  wearing  the  tiara  and  other  ensigns  of  his  Apostolic  office. 
Sciarra  Colonna,  who  accompanied  Nogaret,  assailed  him  with 
savage  reproaches,  and  is  said  to  have  been  brutal  enough  to 
strike  him  on  the  face  with  his  iron  gauntlet.  Boniface  was 
seized  forthwith,  and  committed  to  prison,  in  order,  as  his  captors 
said,  to  ensure  his  appearance  at  the  Council  at  Lyons.  The 
people  of  Anagni,  however,  resenting  these  outrages,  rose  en 
masse  against  the  French,  drove  them  with  severe  loss  from  the 
city,  restored  the  Pope  to  liberty,  and  conducted  him  in  triumph 
to  Home.  But  his  fate  approached.  At  the  age  of  upwards  of 
eighty,  it  was  scarcely  possible  that  he  should  rally  from  the 
shock  of  the  violence  and  barbarous  treatment  to  which  he  had 
been  subjected.  The  iron  had  entered  into  his  soul.  He  was 
attacked  by  fever,  which  produced  delirium  and  frenzy;  and 
death  released  him  from  his  sufferings  on  the  llth  of  October, 
1303. 

The  opposition  excited  by  the  abuse  of  power,  whether  spiritual 
or  temporal,  is  seldom  satisfied  with  redressing  the  particular 
grievance  from  which  it  arose.  When  thus  far  successful,  it  is . 


INTBOD.  POWERS  OP  THE  CHURCH  COURTS.  71 

commonly  impelled  forward,  and  occupies  fresh  ground;  it 
advances  unjust  pretensions,  invades  established  rights,  and 
becomes  in  its  turn  intolerably  oppressive.  The  victory  of 
Philip  over  Boniface — the  violent  recoil  of  that  Pontiff's  extra- 
vagance upon  his  own  head — was  no  mere  isolated  episode  of 
history ;  it  was  a  turning  point  in  the  constitutional  system 
of  Europe.  It  was  the  commencement  of  a  widespread  reaction, 
on  the  part  of  the  laity,  against  ecclesiastical  predominance.  From 
that  time  forward  may  be  traced  a  clear  and  continuous  current 
of  opposition,  not  merely  to  the  uncanonical  encroachments  of 
the  Papacy,  but  to  the  rightful  independence  of  the  Church, 
and  the  legitimate  exercise  of  its  jurisdiction.  The  uniform 
tendency  of  legislation  in  France,  from  the  fourteenth  century 
downwards,  was  to  reduce  the  Church  into  subservience  and 
subjection  to  the  Crown.  Under  colour  of  repressing  Ultra- 
montanism,  protecting  the  Gallican  liberties,  and  reforming 
abuses,  the  State  succeeded  in  transferring  to  itself  nearly  the 
whole  of  the  external  dominion  enjoyed  by  the  hierarchy  during 
the  preceding  ages. 

VI. 

THE  ecclesiastical  courts  had  acquired  extensive  powers  from 
a  very  early  period  of  history.  The  Emperor  Constantino 
authorized  the  bishops  to  act  as  judges  in  matters  affecting 
their  clergy ;  and  it  was  declared  lawful  for  lay  citizens  to 
appeal  in  civil  causes  (not  in  criminal)  to  the  episcopal 
tribunals ;  the  sentences  thus  pronounced  being  enforced  by 
the  State.  These  provisions  were  gradually  enlarged  by  suc- 
cessive enactments,  until  at  length  the  administration  of  justice 
throughout  the  empire  was  concentrated  in  great  measure  in 
the  hands  of  the  clergy.  By  the  Code  of  Justinian  the  bishops 
were  constituted  the  legal  guardians  of  orphans,  widows,  minors, 
lunatics,  paupers,  prisoners,  and  generally  of  all  who  were  com- 
prehended in  the  category  of  "  miserabiles  personae."  All 
testamentary  and  matrimonial  questions — all  matters  relating 
to  bankers,  usurers,  Jews,  Lombards  —  everything  involving 
contracts  and  engagements  upon  oath — all  cases  arising  out 
of  the  Crusades — the  management  of  hospitals  and  other 
charitable  institutions — all  charges  of  sacrilege,  perjury,  in- 
continence, and  in  short,  all  proceedings  originating  in  human 


72 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


ISTROD.' 


delinquency  or  sin — were  consigned  in  course  of  time  to  the 
judicial  arbitration  of  the  Church.* 

This  vast  development  of  spiritual  jurisdiction  became  a 
prolific  source  of  abuse ;  and  it  was  the  work  of  the  four- 
teenth and  fifteenth  centuries  to  curb  and  curtail  it.  An 
attempt  had  been  made,  indeed,  by  the  feudal  aristocracy, 
during  the  reign  of  St.  Louis,  to  confine  the  competence  of  the 
episcopal  courts  to  charges  of  heresy,  usury,  and  matters  con- 
cerning the  sacrament  of  marriage.t  But  the  reactionary 
movement  acquired  greater  force  in  the  time  of  Philippe  de 
Valois,  as  appears  from  the  account  of  a  memorable  conference 
held  in  the  presence  of  that  monarch  in  1329,  when  the  whole 
question  of  civil  and  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  was  argued 
between  Pierre  de  Cugnieres,  Avocat-Genefal  in  the  Parlia- 
ment, on  behalf  of  the  Crown,  and  the  Archbishop  of  Sens  and 
the  Bishop  of  Autun,  as  defenders  of  the  Church.  J  De 
Cugnieres  contended  that  the  spiritual  and  the  temporal  power 
have  each  a  separate  province ;  that  the  two  jurisdictions  cannot 
be  exercised  in  conjunction ;  and  that,  consequently,  the  bishops 
ought  to  relinquish  the  judicial  functions  incidental  to  their 
rank  as  feudal  lords,  and  restrict  themselves  to  those  belonging 
properly  to  the  pastoral  office.  To  this  it  was  replied,  by  the 
Bishop  of  Autun,  that  although  the  two  jurisdictions  are  distinct, 
they  are  by  no  means  incompatible ;  but  may  be  united  in  the 
same  hands,  whenever  that  arrangement  may  be  judged  conducive 
to  the  general  welfare.  He  cited  various  instances  from  Scripture 
in  support  of  this  view.  The  discussion  was  kept  up  with  spirit 
and  ability  on  both  sides.  The  king's  advocate  exhibited  a 
catalogue  of  sixty-six  gravamina,  or  articles  in  which  he  alleged 
that  the  ecclesiastical  courts  had  exceeded  their  powers.  The 
officials  of  the  bishops,  he  said,  asserted  a  right  to  take 
cognizance  of  causes  relating  to  landed  property,  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  the  civil  jurisdiction.  They  cited  laymen  to  their 
bar  even  in  personal  actions,  and  if  the  parties  declined  to 
plead,  they  compelled  them  by  means  of  excommunication 


*  Thomassin,  Vet.  et  Nov.  Ecdes. 
Discip.,  II.  Lib.  iii.  cap.  87,  110. 
Fleury,  Instil,  au  Droit  Ecclesiastique. 
Pt.  III.  cap.  1. 

t  Matt.  Paris,  ad  ann.  1247. 


J  Raynald.,  ad  ann.  1329.  Labbe, 
Concil.,  torn.  xi.  Etienne  Pasquier, 
Reclierches,  torn.  iii.  cap.  33.  Fleury, 
H.  E.,  Liv.  xciv. 


INTROD. 


GRAVAMINA  AGAINST  THE  BISHOPS. ' 


73 


to  submit  to  their  illegal  proceedings.  "  If  a  person  excom- 
municated for  debt  fails  to  pay  the  sum  required  by  the 
sentence,  the  fine  is  forthwith  augmented,  and  the  secular  judge 
is  enjoined,  under  spiritual  censure,  to  enforce  the  payment  by 
seizure  of  goods.  If  he  demurs,  he  is  pronounced  excommuni- 
cate, and  cannot  obtain  absolution  except  by  satisfying  the 
whole  demand."  Other  articles  complained  that  the  bishops, 
in  order  to  enhance  their  power,  were  in  the  habit  of  giving  the 
clerical  tonsure  to  persons  manifestly  disqualified  ; — to  children 
under  age,  to  married  men,  to  those  of  illegitimate  birth,  to 
the  grossly  ignorant,  to  many  who  sought  the  privileges  of  the 
Church  merely  for  the  sake  of  screening  themselves  from  the 
just  punishment  of  crime.  The  episcopal  baillis  and  prevots, 
designedly  chosen  from  the  clergy,  incurred  debt  and  practised 
every  kind  of  extortion  with  impunity,  since  there  was  no  means 
of  bringing  them  to  justice.  These  officers,  whenever  they  chose 
to  treat  persons  as  excommunicate,  rightly  or  wrongly,  prevented 
all  men  from  trading  with  them,  working  for  them,  or  holding 
any  sort  of  intercourse  with  them ;  whence  it  often  happened 
that  the  land  remained  uncultivated.  It  was  a  common  case 
for  twenty,  thirty,  forty,  or  more  individuals  to  be  brought  up 
and  fined  in  different  amounts  for  the  offence  of  having  associated 
with  those  who  lay  under  the  ban  of  the  Church.  The  Bishop 
of  Autun  manfully  combated  these  charges  upon  various  grounds ; 
— alleging  the  provisions  of  statute  law,  ancient  custom,  the  per- 
mission of  the  Crown,  the  superiority  of  the  clerical  order  in 
legal  knowledge  and  general  character.  No  immediate  changes 
resulted  from  this  remarkable  debate.  The  king  declared  that 
he  had  no  intention  whatever  to  attack  the  acknowledged 
privileges  of  the  clergy.  The  bishops  assured  him  that  all 
well-founded  grievances  should  be  redressed  without  delay; 
and  they  were  ultimately  dismissed  with  an  intimation  that 
sufficient  time  would  be  allowed  for  the  fulfilment  of  their 
promise,  but  that,  in  case  of  failure  to  observe  it,  the  king 
would  be  compelled  to  take  the  affair  into  his  own  hands.* 
From  this  date  the  aggressions  of  the  civil  power  upon  the 


*  "Quod  dorainus  Rex  cxspectaret 
usque  ad  festum  Nativitatis  Domini 
proximo  venturum;  infra  quern  ter- 
minum,  si  praolati  non  emendassent 


emendamla  et  corrigenda,  doniinus  Rex 
apponeret  tale  remedium  quod  esset 
gratum  Deo  et  populo." — See  M&moircs 
du  Clerg^,  torn.  vi.  p.  19. 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


INTROD. 


spiritualty  became  more  and  more  frequent  and  determined  ; 
and  in  course  of  time  all  matieres  profanes  were  assigned  to  the 
sole  cognizance  of  the  royal  courts.  Gradually,  by  means  of 
various  subtle  distinctions,  such  as  that  between  "  delits  com- 
muns"  and  "cos  privileges"*  the  clergy  were  brought  within 
the  ordinary  limits  of  secular  authority.  Laymen  were  for- 
bidden to  resort  to*  the  ecclesiastical  judges ;  and  the  Crown 
assumed  jurisdiction  in  causes  affecting  the  temporalities  of  the 
Church,  upon  the  ground  that  they  constituted  a  beneficial 
interest  which  was  subject  to  the  control  of  the  law  of  the  land, 
like  any  other  property. 

It  was  not  long  before  a  decisive  blow  was  aimed  against  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Church  in  France,  by  the  claim  advanced  by 
the  Crown,  or  rather  by  the  Parliaments,  to  hold  a  tribunal  of 
appeal  from  the  judgments  of  the  ecclesiastical  courts.  The  in- 
stitution of  the  "  appel  comme  d'dbus"  as  it  is  called — "  appel- 
latio  tanqudm  db  dbusu" — subjected  all  judicial  acts  of  the 
officers  of  the  Church  to  the  revision  and  correction  of  secular 
law.  The  invention  of  this  expedient  has  been  attributed  to  the 
redoubtable  Pierre  de  Cugnieres ;  at  all  events  it  originated  early 
in  the  fourteenth  century,  though  a  considerable  time  elapsed 
before  it  became  general.  The  appel  comme  d'dbus,  in  its  most 
common  acceptation,  was  a  complaint  preferred  against  the 
ecclesiastical  judge,  on  the  plea  that  he  had  exceeded  or  abused 
his  legitimate  powers.  The  appeal  lay  to  the  Grande  Chambre 
of  the  Parliament  in  civil,  and  to  the  Chambre  de  la  Tournelle 
in  criminal,  actions ;  its  eifect  was  that,  when  admitted  by  the 
court,  the  case  was  thereupon  heard  and  adjudged  afresh,  such 
adjudication  being  final.  The  authority  of  Popes  and  Councils 
was  alleged  in  justification  of  the  practice ;  e.  g.  that  of  the  great 
Lateraii  Council  under  Innocent  III.,  which  enacted,  in  its  forty- 
second  canon,  that  "as  the  laity  are  forbidden  to  usurp  the  rights 
of  the  clergy,  so  the  clergy  must  take  care  not  to  intrude  upon 
the  privileges  of  the  laity.  Wherefore  we  prohibit  all  clerks 
from  employing  any  pretext  of  ecclesiastical  liberty  as  a  means 


*  "  Delits  commons "  were  offences 
of  a  less  serious  kind,  which  were  left 
to  be  dealt  with  by  the  Church  courts. 
"Cas  privilegie's "  included  all  crimes 
attended  by  public  scandal,  such  as 


treason,  homicide,  "rapt,"  &c.,  with 
regard  to  which  the  secular  judge 
claimed  jurisdiction  jointly  with  the 
ecclesiastical,  and  the  former  gave  sen- 
tence in  the  last  resort. 


INTROD.  THE  "APPEL  COMME  D'ABUS."  75 

of  enlarging  their  own  power  at  the  expense  of  the  secular  juris- 
diction." 

The  appel  comme  d'dbus  was  ultimately  established  as  ad- 
missible against  the  Church  courts  in  the  four  following  cases : — 
1.  When  the  spiritual  power  had  encroached  upon  the  temporal 
jurisdiction.  2.  When  there  was  a  manifest  contravention 
of  the  ancient  canons,  the  liberties  of  the  Gallican  Church, 
or  the  ecclesiastical  constitutions  received  in  the  kingdom. 
3.  When  the  ecclesiastical  judge  had  infringed  any  royal  ordon- 
nance  duly  promulgated.  4.  When  a  decision  had  been  given 
contrary  to  the  arrets  of  the  sovereign  courts  of  Parliament.* 
It  was  ruled,  moreover,  that  the  appeal  could  not  be  entertained 
unless  the  matter  in  question  was  of  real  importance  and  evident 
public  interest ;  and  further,  that  the  abuse  complained  of  must 
be  patent  and  notorious.  But  these  restrictions  were  disregarded 
in  subsequent  practice,  f  The  right  of  appeal  to  the  Parliaments 
was  extended  indefinitely  to  matters  great  and  small,  and  that 
upon  pretexts  transparently  frivolous ;  so  that,  instead  of  acting 
as  a  wholesome  check  on  any  inordinate  stretch  of  ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction,  its  general  tendency  was  to  obstruct  that  necessary 
exercise  of  discipline  without  which  Church  authority  is  little 
more  than  a  name.  The  clergy  in  their  assemblies  made  re- 
peated remonstrances  on  this  subject  to  the  crown,  representing 
that  the  practice  led  to  contempt  and  hatred  of  the  spiritual 
jurisdiction,  encouraged  vice,  shackled  and  thwarted  the  admi- 
nistration of  things  sacred,  and  overburdened  the  consciences  of 
the  secular  judges.}:  They  also  prayed  that  the  cases  might  be 
precisely  specified,  in  which  an  appeal  from  spiritual  to  lay 
courts  was  held  allowable ;  but  the  reply  was  always  vague  and 
evasive.  They  were  reminded  that  circumstances  might  arise 
which  were  unforeseen  and  unprovided  for;  and  that  conflicts 
might  occur  in  consequence  between  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
authorities.  The  French  monarchs,  it  is  true,  gave  injunctions 
from  time  to  time  to  the  officers  of  their  courts  to  beware  of 
trangressing  the  bounds  of  their  legal  competence  in  the  matter 


*  Memoires  du  Clergt  de  France,  torn, 
vii.  p.  1542,  et  seqq.  Proce's-verbaux  des 
Assemblies  du  Cterge',  torn.  i.  p.  726. 


iii.  p.  81. 

£  See  the  Cahier  presented  to  Henry 
IV.  by  the  Assembly  of  1605,  Article  26. 


Richard,  Analyse  des  Conciles,  torn.      Memoires  du  Clerge,  torn.  vi.  p.  118. 


76  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  INTROD. 

of  appeals;  but  practically,  the  appel  comme  d'abus  became 
the  favourite  resource  of  all  persons  disaffected  to  the  Church, 
for  the  purpose  of  defeating  any  attempt  to  put  in  force  the 
regulations  of  her  ancient  discipline. 

It  was  a  disputed  point,  whether  the  appel  comme  d'dbus  had 
a  "suspensive,"  or  only  a  "devolutive,"  effect;  that  is,  whether 
the  execution  of  the  sentence  appealed  against  was  suspended 
during  the  prosecution  of  the  appeal,  or  whether  it  remained  in 
force,  and  the  case  was  merely  transferred  to  the  superior  court 
for  a  fresh  hearing.  The  general  opinion  was  that  with  regard 
to  sentences  for  the  correction  of  manners  and  ordinary  eccle- 
siastical discipline,  the  appeal  had  no  suspensive  force.* 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  appel  comme  d'alus  was  avail- 
able reciprocally  as  a  remedy  against  the  temporal  courts,  in  case 
of  abuse  of  power  or  unlawful  intrusion  into  the  province  of  the 
Church.  This  is  laid  down  by  Pierre  Pithou  in  his  enumeration 
of  the  "  liberties  of  the  Gallican  Church ;"  and  De  Marca  refers 
to  it  as  the  constitutional  method  of  obtaining  redress  for  any 
encroachment  of  the  civil  power  on  the  rights  of  the  Church  or 
of  its  ministers.!  Instances  are  on  record  of  its  being  exercised 
with  full  effect.  An  ecclesiastic,  if  cited  before  the  temporal 
court  for  a  matter  not  legally  within  its  competence,  might 
demand  to  have  the  case  sent  back  to  be  tried  before  the  bishop's 
official;  and  if  this  were  refused,  he  was  entitled  to  appeal, 
comme  d'dbus,  to  the  Grande  Chambre  of  the  Parliament. 

At  the  Council  of  Trent  the  appel  comme  d'dbus  was  vehe- 
mently attacked  by  theologians  of  various  nations,  and  was  as 
pertinaciously  defended  by  the  ambassadors  of  Charles  IX.  of 
France.  The  result  was  that  it  was  maintained  in  full  vigour  ; 
and,  indeed,  it  was  not  to  be  expected  that  the  Crown,  having 
once  succeeded  in  establishing  so  effectual  an  engine  for  neutral- 
izing the  judicial  action  of  the  Church,  should  afterwards  be 
induced  to  relinquish  it.  Accordingly,  although  the  ancient 
ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  in  France,  like  the  rest  of  the  mediaeval 
organization,  was  swept  away  by  the  torrent  of  the  great  Kevolu- 


*  Hericourt,  Loix  Eccles.  de  France,  E.,  capp.  14,  28. 

t  P.  Pithou,  Libert^s  de  VEglise  Gallicane,  Article  80.    De  Marca,  De  Concord., 
Lib.  iv.  cap.  21,  §  5. 


INTROD.  THE  "  DROIT  DE  REGALE."  77 

tion,  the  usage  of  the  appel  comme  d'abus  has  survived  to  our 
own  times.  Proceedings  of  this  kind  still  take  place  occasion- 
ally before  the  Imperial  Council  of  State. 

In  proportion  as  Feudalism  declined,  the  French  Crown 
assumed  to  itself  all  those  rights,  prerogatives,  and  emoluments 
connected  with  the  Church,  which  had  previously  been  enjoyed 
by  the  local  seigneurs.  The  most  important  of  these  was  the 
droit  de  regale  (jus  regaliee),  which  gave  to  the  lay  suzerain 
the  administration  of  the  revenues  of  episcopal  sees  while  they 
remained  vacant,  together  with  all  the  patronage  belonging  to 
them ;  though  this  latter  was  held  to  apply  properly  only  to  those 
benefices  which  had  no  cure  of  souls.  The  regale  was  a  point  on 
which  the  kings  of  France  became  especially  jealous,  and  which 
they  vindicated  with  the  utmost  energy  on  many  memorable 
occasions.  It  seems  to  have  been  fully  established  in  the  time 
of  Philippe  le  Bel,  who  gave  the  following  explanation  of  it  in  a 
letter  to  the  Bishop  of  Auxerre :  "  As  in  the  case  of  the  vacancy 
of  a  lay  fief,  it  is  legally  held  by  the  seigneur,  together  with  its 
revenues ;  and  this  occupation  continues,  according  to  the  uni- 
versal custom  of  our  realm,  until  another  vassal  succeeds,  who 
may  do  feudal  service  in  place  of  the  former ;  so,  during  the 
vacancy  of  .a  cathedral  church,  we  and  our  predecessors  have 
taken  possession  both  of  the  temporal  jurisdiction  and  of  the 
temporal  property,  the  fruits  of  which  belong  to  us  for  the  time 
being.  Nor  is  it  only  as  to  the  property  of  bishops  that  we 
exercise  this  power ;  we  dispose  in  like  manner  of  the  temporal 
jurisdiction  and  revenues  appertaining  to  vacant  prebends  and 
dignities  of  all  kinds."  * 

By  a  famous  ordinance  of  Philippe  de  Valois,  known  as  "  the 
Philippine,"  the  droit  de  regale  was  asserted  still  more  dogma- 
tically, and  made  to  extend  not  only  to  benefices  vacant  de. facto, 
but  also  to  those  which  ought  to  be  vacated  de  jure ;  i.e.  those  which 
were  held  without  a  legitimate  canonical  title.f  This  proceeding 
called  forth  strenuous  remonstrances  from  Pope  Benedict  XII., 
as  contrary  to  all  principles  of  justice  and  ecclesiastical  liberty. 
The  same  Pontiff  protested  against  the  misconduct  of  the  royal 
officers,  who,  under  shelter  of  the  regale,  were  accustomed  to 


*  De  Marca,  De  Concord.,  Lib.  viii.  cap.  22,  §  6. 

t  Hericourt,  Loix  Ecdesiastiques  de  France,  F.  vi.  No.  15. 


78 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


INTROD. 


waste,  alienate,  and  destroy  the  temporal  possessions  of  the 
Church,  often  damaging  the  vacant  benefices  seriously  and  per- 
manently.* It  is  evident,  indeed,  that  by  wantonly  prolonging 
a  vacancy,  an  unscrupulous  monarch  might  easily  convert  the 
droit  de  regale  into  an  instrument  of  indefinite  spoliation  and 
oppression. 

VII. 

SUCH  were  some  of  the  vicissitudes  to  which  the  Gallican 
Church  was  subjected,  in  its  relations  both  to  the  Apostolic  See 
and  to  the  civil  government,  down  to  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth 
century.  The  great  Schism  of  the  West  (A.D.  1378-1429) 
formed  so  critical  an  epoch  in  its  history,  and  led  ultimately  to 
consequences  so  momentous,  that  it  is  necessary  to  examine  it 
with  some  minuteness  of  detail. 

This  grave  calamity  is  distinctly  traceable  to  the  ill-advised 
secession  of  the  Popes  to  Avignon,  in  the  person  of  Clement  V. 
That  Pontiff  is  commonly  supposed  to  have  obtained  the  tiara 
by  means  of  a  simoniacal  contract  with  Philip  the  Fair,  which 
bound  him,  among  other  articles,  to  take  up  his  residence  in 
France.  But  this  account,  which  rests  mainly  on  the  authority 
of  the  Grhibelline  historian  Yillani,  has  been  partially  discredited 
by  more  accurate  researches  in  our  own  day ;  and  it  seems  pro- 
bable that  the  change  of  residence  was  made  voluntarily,  for  the 
purpose  of  escaping  from  the  violent  contentions  which  were 
raging  at  the  time  at  Home  between  the  rival  Orsini  and 
Colonna  factions.!  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  step  was  fatal  to 
the  independence  of  the  Papal  throne.  Having  once  taken 
refuge  on  Cisalpine  territory,  Clement  could  not  avoid  acting 
with  more  than  common  deference  to  the  wishes  and  interests  of 
the  King  of  France.  This  was  notoriously  his  motive  in  the 
most  important  transactions  of  his  reign — in  the  judicial  pro- 


*  Kaynald.,  Annal.,  ad  aim.  1337; 
Fleury,  H.  E.,  Liv.  xciv. 

f  See  the  interesting  treatise  of  M. 
Eabanis,  Clement  V.  et  Philippe  le  Bel, 
Paris,  1858.  The  author  demonstrates 
it  to  be  next  to  impossible  that  the 
Archbishop  of  Bordeaux  (afterwards 
Clement  V.)  can  have  held  a  personal 
interview  with  Philip  at  S.  Jean  d'An- 


gely,  or  elsewhere  in  that  neighbour- 
hood, at  the  date  usually  assigned  for 
the  compact  between  them.  That  Cle- 
ment owed  his  election  to  Philip's  in- 
fluence, and  that  he  became,  as  Pope, 
the  subservient  instrument  of  that 
monarch's  purposes,  are  facts  which 
admit  of  no  question. 


INTBOD. 


THE  POPES  OF  AVIGNON. 


79 


ceedings  against  the  memory  of  Boniface  VIII., — in  the  ini- 
quitous suppression  of  the  Templars, — and  in  his  support  of  the 
princes  of  Anjou  in  the  Kingdom  of  Naples.  Moreover  (and  it 
was  upon  this  that  subsequent  events  chiefly  turned)  a  French 
Pope  was  naturally  disposed  to  create  French  cardinals ;  and 
prelates  of  that  nation  accordingly  figured  almost  exclusively  in 
the  promotions  to  the  conclave  during  this  period.  Thus  they 
formed  in  course  of  time  a  decided  majority  of  the  sacred 
college. 

The  luxury,  pride,  avarice,  and  tyranny  of  the  Popes  who  sat 
at  Avignon  are  proverbial  in  history.*  The  kings  of  France 
connived  at  their  excesses,  and  pressed  them  to  remain  per- 
manently in  their  new  capital ;  obtaining  the  more  readily,  by 
this  policy,  Pontifical  sanction  for  the  exactions  and  usurpa- 
tions which  they  themselves  practised  on  the  National  Church. 
The  general  result  was  a  lamentable  degradation  of  the  supreme 
spiritual  authority.  Protection  and  security  was  all  that  was 
afforded  to  the  Pontiffs  ostensibly  ;  but  their  real  condition  for 
seventy  years  was  one  of  splendid  vassalage  to  the  French 
Crown. 

Bitter  were  the  lamentations  poured  forth  by  the  Komans 
over  this  "  second  Babylonish  captivity,"  and  earnestly  did  they 
implore  the  successor  of  St.  Peter  to  resume  the  natural  and 
only  legitimate  seat  of  his  primacy.  Gregory  XI.,  overcome 
by  their  importunities,  returned  to  Eome  in  1377,f  and  died 
there  early  in  the  following  year,  mournfully  forecasting  the  mis- 
fortunes which  were  soon  to  fall  upon  the  Church. 

There  were  at  that  moment  twenty-three  Cardinals,  of  whom 
eighteen  were  Frenchmen.  Of  these,  however,  six  had  remained 
at  Avignon,  and  one  was  absent  in  Tuscany ;  so  that  the  actual 
conclave  by  which  the  Pope  was  to  be  chosen  consisted  of  no 
more  than  sixteen  members.  Nevertheless,  if  the  French  had 
been  united,  they  might  have  commanded  the  election  ;  but 
they  were  divided  by  a  jealousy  against  the  Limousins,  to  which 
province  three  preceding  Pontiffs  had  belonged.  The  conse- 


*  There  were,  however,  some  honour- 
able exceptions,  such  as  those  of  Inno- 
cent VI.  and  Urban  V. 

f  Charles  V.  of  France  made  extra- 
ordinary eiforts  to  prevent  his  leaving 
Avignon.  The  Duke  of  Anjou,  the 


king's  brother,  was  despatched  at  the 
last  moment  to  join  the  French  Cardi- 
nals in  the  intrigues  by  which  they 
were  labouring  at  all  hazards  to  frus- 
trate the  Pope's  purpose. 


80  THE  GALLTCAN  CHURCH.  INTROD. 

quence  was  that  the  minority  of  the  French  coalesced  with  the 
Italians,  and  secured  a  preponderance.  Considerable  pressure 
was  also  exercised  on  the  conclave  by  the  magistrates  and 
citizens  of  Rome,  who  clamoured  tumultuously  for  "  a  Roman 
Pope,"  or,  at  all  events,  for  a  native-born  Italian.  It  was  under 
this  stress  of  circumstances  that  Bartolomeo  Pregnano,  a  Nea- 
politan, Archbishop  of  Bari,  was  elevated  to  the  Papal  chair  in 
April,  1378,  and  took  the  title  of  Urban  VI.  But  after  an 
interval  of  some  months  the  French  cardinals,  anxious  above  all 
things  to  retain  the  Pontifical  court  in  their  own  land,  and 
irritated,  moreover,  by  the  tyrannical  severity  of  Urban's 
government,  retired  to  Fondi  in  the  Kingdom  of  Naples,  de- 
clared the  former  election  void  by  reason  of  constraint  and  in- 
timidation, and  conferred  the  tiara  upon  Robert  Cardinal  of 
Geneva,  who  was  immediately  crowned  under  the  name  of  Cle- 
ment VII.  A  deplorable  schism  ensued.  The  King  of  France, 
after  instituting  a  lengthened  and  rigorous  inquiry  at  Rome, 
and  holding  repeated  consultations  with  his  prelates  and  the 
theologians  of  Paris,  determined  to  support  Clement,  who  was 
thenceforward  recognised  by  the  French  as  rightful  Pope.  He 
obtained  afterwards,  chiefly  through  French  influence,  the 
adhesion  of  Spain,  Scotland,  Savoy,  and  Sicily.  The  rest  of 
Europe  acknowledged  the  authority  of  Urban  VI. 

It  was  natural  that  Clement  should  fix  his  abode  in  proximity 
to  the  most  powerful  of  the  sovereigns  who  had  embraced  his 
cause.  He  established  himself  at  Avignon,  where  he  was  sur- 
surrounded  by  thirty-six  cardinals,  almost  without  exception 
French ;  and  as  it  was  necessary  to  provide  these  dignitaries 
with  revenues  befitting  their  rank,  their  claims  became  a  burden- 
some tax  on  the  ecclesiastical  property  of  the  realm.  The  Popes 
of  Avignon  had  laid  heavy  hands  on  the  endowments  of  the 
Gallican  Church,  even  while  they  enjoyed  the  undivided 
allegiance  of  Christendom  ;  but  the  evil  was  vastly  intensified 
when  their  jurisdiction  was  confined  to  France  and  some  few 
neighbouring  countries.  The  system  of  disciplinary  abuses  was 
now  carried  to  its  most  scandalous  extreme.  By  means  of  re- 
serves, expectatives,  and  dispensations,  Clement  accumulated  all 
the  higher  preferments  on  his  own  devoted  partizans ;  and  the 
clergy  were  shamefully  pillaged  by  multifarious  devices  in  order 
to  enrich  the  Pontifical  exchequer.  The  oppressive  impost 


IXTBOD.  KESULTS  OF  THE  GREAT  SCHISM.  81 

called  annates,  or  the  first-fruits  of  benefices,  was  largely  aug- 
mented, and  enforced  \vith  extortionate  rigour.*  It  was  assessed 
not  only  on  "  benefices  consistoriaux,"  but  on  all  preferments 
indiscriminately ;  and  the  demand  was  at  last  trebled  in  amount, 
the  emoluments  of  three  years  being  swallowed  up  in  succession, 
instead  of  the  first  year's  income  only.  By  this  proceeding 
incumbents  were  not  unfrequently  reduced  to  absolute  want, 
and  compelled  to  become  vagabonds  and  mendicants.!  Another 
exaction,  that  of  the  "decimes,"  or  tenths,  which  was  levied 
without  mercy  upon  the  entire  temporalities  of  the  Church,  pro- 
voked a  formidable  resistance  from  the  University  of  Paris.  J 

It  is  impossible  to  describe  adequately  the  profound  per- 
plexity, dismay,  and  confusion  which  arose  from  this  protracted 
warfare  between  the  rival  vicars  of  Christ.  With  regard  to  the 
intrinsic  merits  of  the  dispute  there  was  much  to  be  pleaded  on 
both  sides ;  nor  has  the  Church  ever  thought  fit  to  decide  the 
question  authoritatively.  It  is  obvious,  however,  that  if  either 
Pope  had  been  canonically  chosen,  the  other  was  a  mere  pre- 
tender ;  and  the  latter,  in  that  case,  was  not  only  himself  schism- 
atical,  but  had  involved  all  his  adherents  in  the  guilt  and 
penalties  of  schism.  The  only  alternative  hypothesis — namely, 
that  both  Popes  were  alike  uncanonical — was  still  more  dis- 
tressing ;  for  if  so,  then  the  Catholic  body  possessed  no  legitimate 
visible  head— a  state  of  things  which,  according  to  the  theology 
of  that  day,  was  so  abnormal  as  to  be  almost  subversive  of  its 
Divine  constitution. 

It  was  felt  to  be  imperative  that  measures  should  be  taken 
towards  the  removal  of  evils  which  threatened  nothing  less 
than  the  total  disintegration  of  organized  Christianity  in  the 
West;  and  the  distinction  of  having  inaugurated  a  practical 
movement  to  that  end,  which  was  substantially,  if  not  com- 
pletely, crowned  with  success,  belongs  without  question  to  the 
Church  of  France. 


*  It  appears  that  the  "  annatae  "  were 
first  imposed  as  a  permanent  tax  on 
bishoprics  and  other  "  beneficia  consis- 
torialia"  by  Boniface  IX.  in  1392.  The 
custom,  however,  was  not  new ;  the 
first  year's  revenue  having  been  exacted 
by  bishops  and  other  dignitaries  from 
the  incumbents  of  benefices  in  their 
patronage  from  a  much  earlier  period. 


See  Thomassin,  Vet.  et  Nov.  Eccles 
Discip.,  III.,  Lib.  ii.  cap.  58. 

f  See  the  contemporary  Chronique 
du  Religieux  de  8.  Denis,  Liv.  ii.  cap.  2. 
(Documens  inedits  sur  1'histoire  de 
France.)  Also,  J.  Juvenal  des  Ursins, 
Histoire  de  Claries  VI. 

J  Du  Boulai,  Hut.  de  I  Univ.  de  Paris, 
torn.  iv.  p.  533. 


VOL.  i.  a 


82  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  IKTBOD. 

The  remedy  proposed  was  that  of  appeal  to  a  General  Council, 
as  the  supreme  tribunal  of  Christendom ; — competent,  should 
the  necessity  arise,  to  pass  judgment  even  on  the  Pope  himself. 
This  is  commonly  quoted  as  one  of  the  peculiar  principles  of 
Gallicanism  ;  but  in  point  of  fact  it  is  an  original  constitutional 
law  of  the  Church  Catholic.  It  was  not  contended,  even  by  the 
strictest  Gallicans,  that  the  Church  ought  to  be  governed,  under 
ordinary  circumstances,  by  a  succession  of  General  Councils; 
but  that  such  a  legitimate  method  of  final  decision  existed,  and 
that  the  schism  was  an  emergency  which  justified  and  necessi- 
tated its  application.  The  Church  possessed,  by  the  charter  of 
her  Divine  foundation,  powers  which  had  been  granted  for  the 
express  purpose  of  preserving  her  organic  unity ;  and  if  she  had 
hitherto  forborne  to  exercise  those  powers  under  the  existing 
calamity,  it  was  all  the  more  important  that  they  should  not  be 
suffered  to  fall  into  further  disuse  and  oblivion,  while  every  day 
was  adding  to  the  inveteracy  of  the  evils  which  they  were  de- 
signed to  counteract. 

The  University  of  Paris — at  this  time  the  most  celebrated 
school  of  theology  in  Europe — interposed,  and  laboured  with  in- 
defatigable zeal  to  procure  the  reunion  of  the  distracted  Church. 
Its  Chancellor  was  Pierre  d'Ailly  (Petrus  de  Alliaco),  after- 
wards Cardinal  and  Bishop  of  Cambrai.  Its  leading  divines 
were  the  illustrious  Jean  Gerson,  who  succeeded  D'Ailly  in  the 
post  of  Chancellor,  Nicolas  de  Clemangis,  Gilles  Deschamps, 
and  Jean  de  Courtecuisse.  The  first  movements  of  these  ener- 
getic reformers  were  visited  with  severe  censure,  and  even 
punishment,  by  the  corrupt  court  of  Charles  YI.  One  of  their 
body,  a  learned  professor  named  Jean  Rousse,  was  arrested  and 
imprisoned  by  the  Regent,  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  merely  for 
having  suggested  that  the  only  effectual  means  of  healing  the 
schism  was  the  convocation  of  a  General  Council.  His  col- 
leagues obtained  his  release  with  difficulty,  and  on  the  express 
condition  that  they  would  henceforth  support  the  Pope  of 
Avignon,  Clement  VII.*  So  powerful  were  the  ties  of  interest 
which  attached  the  French  monarchy  to  the  Cisalpine  Pope, 
that  anything  like  scepticism  as  to  Clement's  legitimacy  was 
treated  as  a  serious  crime.  It  was  notified  to  the  heads  of 


Cliron.  du  Eel.  de  St.  Denis,  Liv.  ii.  cap.  2. 


INTROD.         EFFORTS  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  PARIS.  83 

the  University  that  no  further  mention  must  be  made  of  the 
election  of  another  Pope,  or  the  calling  of  a  General  Council, 
under  pain  of  the  King's  signal  displeasure. 

D'Ailly  and  his  brethren,  nothing  daunted,  persevered  in 
their  endeavours  to  pave  the  way  for  a  pacification ;  and  even- 
tually they  wrung  from  the  Government  a  reluctant  permission 
to  summon  a  special  meeting  of  the  whole  academical  body,  to 
deliberate  on  the  expedients  for  extinguishing  the  schism. 

Consultations  were  held  accordingly  in  the  year  1394.  The 
result  was  that  the  plans  proposed  reduced  themselves  to  the 
three  following  : — 1.  The  voluntary  resignation  of  both  Popes; 
after  which  the  two  colleges  of  cardinals  might  unite  and  pro- 
ceed to  a  fresh  election.  2.  A  compromise  by  means  of  arbi- 
tration ;  and  3.  The  convocation  of  a  General  Council,  which, 
it  was  argued,  would  derive  from  the  universal  consent  of  the 
faithful  irrefragable  authority  to  pronounce  judgment  under  the 
circumstances.*  The  first  of  these  methods — the  voie  de  cession 
— was  that  preferred  by  the  University.  Their  views,  having 
been  embodied  in  an  elaborate  memorial  admirably  drawn  up 
by  Nicolas  de  Clemangis,  one  of  the  most  accomplished  scholars 
of  his  time,  was  presented  by  a  deputation  to  the  King.  Its 
contents  were  likewise  communicated  to  Pope  Clement ;  who 
forthwith  declaimed  against  it  in  full  consistory  as  a  "defa- 
matory libel  on  the  Holy  See,  saturated  with  the  poison  of 
calumny."  Such  was  the  violence  of  his  agitation  that  a  fit  of 
apoplexy  ensued,  of  which  he  died  on  the  16th  of  September, 
1394. 

An  attempt  was  now  made  to  dissuade  the  cardinals  of  Avignon 
from  proceeding  to  a  fresh  election ;  but  in  vain.  Determined 
at  all  hazards  to  prolong  the  schismatical  succession,  they  gave 
their  votes  to  Pedro  de  Luna,  a  man  of  overbearing  and  obsti- 
nate temper,  who  assumed  the  title  of  Benedict  XIII. 

The  labours  of  the  Gallican  theologians  began  at  length  to 
bear  important  fruit.  In  February,  1395,  the  king  convoked  an 
extraordinary  assembly  of  prelates,  clergy,  princes,  and  nobles,  at 
Paris,  sufficient  in  numbers  and  dignity  to  represent  the  nation 
in  Church  and  State,  to  discuss  the  proposals  of  the  University 
as  set  forth  in  their  Memorial.  The  Council  decided  in  favour 


*  Crcvicr,  Hist,  de  VUniv.  de  Paris,  torn.  iii.  p.  114. 

G  2 


84:  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  INTKOD. 

of  the  "  voie  de  cession ;"  and,  in  consequence,  a  distinguished 
embassy,  including  the  king's  uncles  the  Dukes  of  Burgundy 
and  Berry,  and  his  brother  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  was  dispatched 
to  Avignon,  to  tender  this  unpalatable  advice  to  Pope  Benedict. 
But  after  a  long  course  of  illusory  negotiation,  it  was  found 
impossible  to  persuade  the  two  antagonists  to  embrace  this 
mode  of  settling  their  differences.  Benedict  met  the  remon- 
strances of  the  French  court  and  clergy  with  coarse  abuse  and 
furious  menaces  ;  and  after  a  time,  wearied  by  his  perverseness 
and  duplicity,  the  Gallican  Church  took  the  decisive  step  of 
withdrawing  from  his  obedience.*  The  royal  edict  to  that  effect 
appeared  on  the  27th  of  July,  1398,  and  was  registered  by  the 
Parliament  on  the  29th  of  August  following.  All  the  acts  of 
Benedict  were  thereby  pronounced  null  and  void.  Appeals  to 
the  Pope  during  the  "  soustraction  d'obedience  "  were  to  be  dealt 
with  as  if  the  pontifical  chair  were  vacant ;  they  were  to  be 
heard  by  the  Metropolitan,  and  in  the  last  resort  were  to  be  car- 
ried before  the  Provincial  Council.  Various  regulations  were 
adopted  for  reviving  the  ancient  forms  of  election, — for  abo- 
lishing reservations  and  expective  graces, — and  for  replacing 
the  collation  and  institution  to  benefices  in  the  hands  of  the 
lawful  ordinaries.  In  short,  a  restoration  was  proclaimed  of 
the  primitive  franchises  and  discipline  of  the  Gallican  Church. 

But  the  existing  crisis  of  affairs  was  by  no  means  propitious 
to  the  execution  of  such  wholesome  measures,  particularly  as 
regards  the  re-establishment  of  free  elections.  It  was  found 
that  the  mere  act  of  repudiating  the  authority  of  the  Pope  did 
not  ipso  facto  redintegrate  the  Church  in  the  enjoyment  of  her 
independence.  On  the  contrary,  the  State  took  advantage 
of  the  interregnum  to  extend  its  sphere  of  intrusive  action 
in  the  domain  ecclesiastical ;  and  the  clergy  soon  discovered 
that  they  had  only  exchanged  the  oppression  of  a  spiritual  despot 
for  the  still  more  questionable  domination  of  the  civil  power. 
The  nominees  of  the  sovereign  and  his  ministers  monopolised 
the  higher  preferments ;  the  Courts  Christian  were  impeded  in 
the  exercise  of  discipline ;  the  Parliaments  assumed  a  wider 
jurisdiction ;  and  the  power  of  the  clerical  order  declined  apace. 

The  "  subtraction  of  obedience,"  though  adopted  after  mature 
deliberation,  was  the  work  of  an  extreme  party,  of  the  doctors  of 

*  Chron.  de  S.  Denis,  Liv.  xix.  cap.  5. 


INTBOD.         FRANCE  DEMANDS  A  GENERAL  COUNCIL.  85 

the  Sorbonne.  It  was  viewed  with  misgiving  and  regret  by  the 
more  moderate,  that  is  the  majority,  of  the  national  clergy,  who 
saw  that  its  inevitable  tendency  was  to  weaken  and  depress  the 
Church  in  her  relations  with  the  civil  Government.  Pope 
Benedict  had  been  besieged  and  imprisoned  in  his  palace  at 
Avignon  by  the  royal  forces ;  and  this  harsh  treatment  added  to 
their  dissatisfaction.  So  strong  was  the  reaction  that  at  length, 
through  the  influence  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  supported  by 
D'Ailly,  Gerson,  and  Clemangis,  it  was  resolved  to  restore  the 
allegiance  of  France  to  Benedict.  This  act  was  proclaimed  by 
royal  edict  on  the  30th  of  May,  1403  ;  the  Pope  having  solemnly 
engaged,  as  a  preliminary  condition,  to  resign  in  the  event  of 
the  death,  abdication,  or  deposition  of  his  opponent.*  He  pro- 
mised likewise  to  confirm  all  ecclesiastical  appointments  made 
during  the  interregnum  ;  to  summon  without  delay  a  Council  of 
his  obedience  to  treat  for  the  termination  of  the  schism ;  and 
to  abide  faithfully  by  the  decision  of  that  assembly.  The  Pope, 
however,  violated  these  articles  without  scruple ;  fresh  opposition 
was  stirred  up  in  consequence ;  and  at  a  third  great  convocation 
of  clergy  (December  21,  1406)  the  decisive  conclusion  was 
arrived  at  that  it  was  indispensably  necessary  to  have  recourse 
to  a  General  Council  for  the  reformation  of  the  Church  in  its 
head  and  its  members.  This  was  followed  up  by  a  royal  declara- 
tion to  the  effect  that,  if  the  unity  of  the  Church  were  not 
restored  by  the  Feast  of  the  Ascension  next  ensuing,  the 
kingdom  of  France  would  finally  renounce  both  Popes,  and 
assume  a  position  of  neutrality.  Upon  this  the  two  popes  opened 
a  negotiation,  ostensibly  with  a  view  to  an  accommodation  by 
the  method  of  cession ;  but  their  behaviour  soon  led  to  the  con- 
viction that  they  were  secretly  leagued  together  to  prolong 
the  schism.  An  act  of  inconceivable  rashness  on  the  part  of 
Benedict,  who  launched  a  bull  threatening  the  University  and 
the  whole  realm  with  interdict  and  the  king  with  deposition, 
produced  a  burst  of  vehement  indignation  in  France ;  where,  in 

*  Chron.  de  S.  Denis,  Liv.  xxiv.  cap.  !  supreme  Pontiff,  or  to  legislate  on 
5.  These  proceedings  were  not  allowed  !  matters  affecting  the  general  admini- 
to  pass  without  censure  in  several  j  stration  of  the  Church.  An  GEcu- 


quarters.  The  University  of  Toulouse 
addressed  a  strongly  worded  remon- 
strance to  the  king,  urging  that  neither 
the  State  nor  any  national  Council 
were  entitled  to  sit  in  judgment  on  the 


menical  Council  was  the  only  authority 
competent  to  entertain  such  questions. 
Kaynald.,  Annal.  ad  ann.  ft03,  torn, 
viii.  p.  108. 


86  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  INTBOD. 

August,  1408,  the  Government  published  a  second  withdrawal  of 
obedience,  abandoning  the  "voie  de  cession"  as  hopeless,  and 
declaring  itself  in  a  state  of  neutrality  until  the  meeting  of  the 
General  Council,  which  had  been  convoked  at  Pisa  by  the  two 
colleges  of  Cardinals  for  the  spring  of  the  following  year.* 

On  this  occasion  the  French  Church  carefully  renewed  its 
regulations  of  internal  discipline  to  be  observed  during  the  sus- 
pension of  intercourse  with  the  Holy  See.  The  different  grades 
of  appellate  jurisdiction  were  precisely  defined.  From  the  Arch- 
deacon the  appeal  lay  to  the  Bishop ;  from  the  Bishop  to  the 
Metropolitan  ;  from  the  Metropolitan  to  the  Primate,  or  (where 
no  primatial  authority  was  recognized)  to  the  Provincial 
Council.  Each  Metropolitan  was  to  assemble  the  Council  of  his 
province  every  year ;  its  duration  Avas  never  to  be  less  than  a 
month.  Free  election  was  to  be  the  rule  for  all  dignities  which 
by  their  nature  or  by  ancient  institution  were  elective.  The 
election  of  Bishops  to  be  confirmed  by  the  Metropolitan ;  that  of 
metropolitans  by  the  Primate  or  the  Provincial  Council.  Other 
articles  prescribed  the  mode  of  proceeding  as  to  dispensations, 
absolution  from  ecclesiastical  censures,  and  the  decision  of  cases 
specially  reserved  to  the  Pope.  It  was  expressly  announced 
that  the  spiritual  courts  would  take  the  common  law  as  their 
standard  of  jurisprudence  in  preference  to  the  precepts  of 
the  Koman  Chancery,  wherever  there  was  a  divergence  between 
the  two  codes. 

These  arrangements  show  that  the  first  theologians  of  that 
age,  however  strongly  attached  to  the  Eoman  patriarchate  and 
the  Petrine  primacy  as  traditional  principles  of  government,  did 
not  deem  them  indispensable  to  the  life,  authority,  and  normal 
functions  of  the  Church.  Such,  indeed,  were  the  obvious  lessons 
of  this  disastrous  schism. 

The  authority  of  the  forthcoming  Council  of  Pisa  lay  open  to 
serious  question.  In  the  first  place,  it  was  the  received  doctrine 
of  that  day  that  a  General  Council  could  be  convoked  only  by 
the  supreme  Pontiff,  and  moreover,  that  he  must  preside  over  it 
either  in  person  or  by  his  legates.  Neither  Pope  could  do  this 
while  the  schism  existed ;  since  the  very  purpose  of  resorting  to 


*  Chron.  de  8.  Denis,  Liv.  xxix.  cap.  6.    Du  Boulai,  Hist,  de  I' Univ.  de  Paris, 
torn.  v.  p.  158. 


INTROD.  GERSON  AND  D'AILLY  ON  THE  SCHISM.  87 

the  Council  was  to  determine  between  their  conflicting  preten- 
sions, and  to  appoint  a  legitimate  head  of  the  Church.  It  had 
been  argued,  again,  that  under  such  circumstances  the  duty  of 
convening  the  Council  devolved  upon  the  cardinals;  but  this 
led  to  a  further  difficulty ;  for,  if  it  were  doubtful  who  was  the 
true  Pope,  it  was  doubtful  likewise  whether  the  cardinals  were 
lawfully  appointed,  and  whether  they  had  the  right  to  initiate 
such  proceedings.*  These  problems,  however,  were  met  and 
solved  in  a  masterly  manner  by  such  clear-sighted  reasoners  as 
D'Ailly  and  Gerson.  The  latter,  in  his  famous  treatise  'De 
auferibilitate  Papa3,'f  pointed  out  that  the  Church  must  of 
necessity  possess  the  same  power  which  belongs  to  every  other 
corporate  society,  namely  that  of  removing  a  chief  officer  who 
is  unable  or  unworthy  to  execute  his  functions,  and  providing 
another  in  his  place.  "  All  positive  laws,"  says  Gerson, "  are  sub- 
ject to  modification  according  to  the  exigency  of  successive  wants ; 
and  the  present  is  one  of  those  occasions  when  it  is  wiser  to  regard 
the  spirit  than  the  mere  letter  of  the  law,  and  to  be  governed  by 
those  primary  sanctions  which  are  unchangeable  and  divine."  ^ 

D'Ailly,  in  like  manner,  demonstrated  that  in  certain  cases, 
one  of  which  is  that  of  a  schism,  rendering  it  difficult  to  deter- 
mine between  rival  claimants  of  the  Papacy,  the  ultimate  appeal 
must  unquestionably  be  to  a  General  Council.  That  supreme 
tribunal,  if  the  pretenders  should  obstinately  refuse  to  resign, 
might  depose  them,  and  afterwards  proceed  to  the  election  of  a 
Pope  who  would  be  recognized  throughout  the  Church.§ 

The  Council  met  at  Pisa  on  the  Feast  of  the  Annunciation, 
1409,  amid  intense  excitement  throughout  Christendom.  The 
preponderance  of  the  French  Church  on  this  great  occasion 


*  Baynald.,  Annul.,  torn.  viii.  c.  44. 

t  "  Libellus  de  auferibilitate  Papse 
ab  Ecclesia.'' — Gerson.,  Opera,  torn.  ii. 
p.  209  et  seqq. 

J  "  Non  solum  auctoritate  Christ),  sed 
etiam  communi  jure  natural!  prsemis- 
sani  potestateni  habet  corpus  mysticum 
Eccle?iae  Dei.  Patet,  quia  quocllibet 
corpus  naturale  naturaliter  resistit  suso  '  Jura  positiva  non  possunt  ab  Ecclesia 
division!  et  distraction!,  et  si  sit  corpus  absolute  tollere  illam  potestateni  quse 
animatum,  naturaliter  congregat  omnia  ei  competit  divino  et  natural!  jure." — 


civilis  communitas,  vel  politia  rite  or- 
dinata.  Ideoque  corpus  spirituale  seu 
mysticum  Ecclesiae  Christianse,  quod  or- 
dinatissime  compositum  est,  simili  jure 
uti  poterit  ad  suam  unitatein  conser- 
vandam  et  quamlibet  scbismaticam  di- 
visionem  repellendam,  tanquam  euse 
ordinationis  destructivam 


membra  omnesque  vires  sr.as  ad  con- 


Gerson,  Opp.,  torn.  ii.  p.  112.     (Edit. 


servamlam  suam  unitatem,  et  repcllen-      Ellies  Dupin.    Antwerp,  1706.) 

dam  suam  divisionem;  fcimili  quoque  §  Petr.  de  Alliaco,  Veficcles.  et  Con- 

modo  et  quodlibet  corpus   civile,    seu      oil.  General.  Auctoritate,  Pt.  III.  cap.  4. 


88  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  INTHOD. 

was  manifest  and  irresistible.  It  was  represented  by  eight  car- 
dinals, the  titular  Patriarch  of  Alexandria,  Simon  de  Cramault, 
the  Metropolitans  of  Lyons,  Bourges,  Toulouse,  Tours,  Narbonne, 
and  Vienne, — thirty  bishops  present  in  person,  and  the  proctors 
of  forty-six  others  who  were  unable  to  attend, — a  vast  multitude 
of  abbots,  canons,  heads  of  orders,  and  other  dignitaries,  together 
with  deputations  from  the  Universities  of  Paris,  Orleans,  Angers, 
Toulouse,  and  Montpellier. 

Following  the  course  indicated  by  the  Parisian  doctors,  the 
Synod  proclaimed,  in  its  14th  session,  that  it  represented  the 
Church  Universal,  and  had  authority  to  decide  the  questions  of 
the  union  of  the  Church  and  of  the  schism.  It  next  proceeded 
in  due  form  to  depose  Popes  Benedict  XIII.  and  Gregory  XII., 
as  schismatical,  heretical,  perjured  and  incorrigible ;  released  all 
Christians  from  the  obligation  to  obey  them  ;  and  declared  the 
Holy  See  to  be  vacant.  The  election  of  a  new  Pope  followed 
immediately.  The  Cardinals  entered  the  Conclave  on  the  15th 
of  June,  each  having  previously  signed  an  agreement  which 
pledged  him,  in  case  he  should  be  chosen,  to  continue  the 
Council  until  it  should  have  effected  a  substantial  reforma- 
tion. The  choice  fell  upon  the  Cardinal  of  Milan,  Peter 
of  Candia,  who  took  the  title  of  Alexander  Y.  The  new 
Pontiff  engaged  at  his  election  to  continue  the  Council  of  Pisa 
for  the  avowed  purpose  of  dealing  with  the  crucial  question  of 
the  reformation  of  the  Church.  Ultimately,  however,  he  pro- 
rogued that  assembly  for  three  years,  postponing  the  project 
of  reform  until  it  should  resume  its  labours.  Alexander  held 
the  Papal  chair  scarcely  a  year,  and  was  succeeded,  in  May, 
1410,  by  Balthazzar  Cossa,  under  the  name  of  John  XXIII. 
It  was  under  the  presidency  of  this  pontiff  that  the  celebrated 
Council  of  Constance,  styled  the  Sixteenth  (Ecumenical,  com- 
menced its  sittings  on  the  5th  of  November,  1414. 

The  master-spirit  of  this  assembly  was  Jean  Gerson,  now 
Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Paris ;  who  impressed  upon  it,  by 
force  of  character  as  well  as  of  argument,  those  irrefragable 
views  of  ecclesiastical  polity  which  for  so  many  years  he  had 
energetically  laboured  to  establish.  A  large  part  of  Gerson's 
works  is  occupied  by  an  elaborate  exposition  of  the  rights  and 
functions  of  (Ecumenical  Councils.  This  was  necessary  under 
the  circumstances  of  the  time ;  for  the  expedient  which  he 


INTKOD. 


GERSON  ON  GENERAL  COUNCILS. 


89 


advocated,  notwithstanding  the  well-known  practice  of  the  Church 
in  earlier  ages,  was  strange  to  the  existing  generation  ;  it  was  of 
a  tentative  character,  and  had  somewhat  the  air  of  being  a  con- 
trivance pro  re  natd. 

"It  may  be  asked,"  writes  Gerson  to  his  friend  Cardinal 
D'Ailly,  immediately  before  the  opening  of  the  Synod,  "  it 
may  be  asked  whether  this  Council  is  above  the  Pope.*  I 
reply,  certainly  it  is.  It  is  superior  to  the  Pope  in  authority, 
superior  in  dignity,  superior  in  office.  From  the  decisions  of 
such  a  Council  there  is  no  appeal.  Such  a  Council  has  power  to 
enact  new  laws,  and  to  abrogate  existing  and  ancient  laws.  The 
constitutions  and  decrees  of  such  a  Council  are  incapable  of  being 
changed  or  dispensed  with  by  any  power  inferior  to  itself.  The 
Pope  cannot,  and  never  could,  dispense  with  the  sacred  canons 
framed  by  a  General  Council,!  unless  the  Council  itself,  for 
some  weighty  reason,  should  specially  authorize  him  to  do  so. 
The  Pope  cannot  alter,  nor  even  interpret,  the  acts  of  the  Council, 
much  less  can  he  dispense  with  them ;  since  they  are  like  the 
Gospels  of  Christ,  over  which  the  Pope  has  no  jurisdiction  what- 
ever. Let  the  Catholic  Church  take  heed  above  all  things  never 
to  concede  to  the  Pope,  under  any  pretext,  the  power  of  dis- 
pensing with  the  canons  of  a  General  Council,  or  even  of  alter- 
ing or  interpreting  them;  this  ought  to  be  done  solely  by 
another  council,  to  be  convoked  from  time  to  time  for  the  re- 
formation of  the  Church.  For  it  is  plain  as  daylight  that  the 
greater  part  of  what  was  done  and  ordained  by  the  four  great 
(Ecumenical  Councils,  and  others  subsequent,  has  been  almost 
annihilated  and  cast  into  oblivion  by  the  growing  avarice  of 
Popes,  cardinals,  arid  prelates ;  by  means  of  papal  reservations, 
the  iniquitous  practices  of  the  Apostolic  Chamber  and  chancery, 
by  corrupt  dispensations,  indulgences,  and  the  office  of  the 
"  Penitentiary." 


*  Bellarmine  (De  Condi.  Auct.,  Lib. 
ii.)  asserts  that  the  vexed  question  of 
the  relative  authority  of  Popes  and 
Councils  first  arose  at  the  time  of  the 
Council  of  Pisa,  implying,  of  course, 
that  it  was  one  of  the  pestilent  fruits 
of  the  great  schism.  But  this  is  mere 
misrepresentation.  See  the  conclusive 
testimonies  collected  on  the  subject  by 
J.  de  Launoi,  in  his  epistle  ad  Christo- 
phorum  Fauvseum  (Laun.,  Epist.,  Pars 


f  This  position  is  controverted  by  De 
Marca,  who  lays  down  as  a  fundamental 
principle,  "Papam  solvere  posse  et 
dispensare  valide  et  licite  a  canonibus 
Conciliorum  Generalium,  etiam  sine 
causa ;  dummodo  hsec  dispensatio  non 
tendat  ad  labefactandum  Ecclesise  sta- 
tum  (De  Concord.,  Prolegomena,  and  ib. 
Lib.  iii.  capp.  14, 15).  Gerson,  however, 
is  in  this  instance  the  more  correct 
exponent  of  Gallican  doctrine. 


90  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  INTROD. 

"  The  first  object  of  the  Council,"  he  continues,  "  is  the  elec- 
tion of  one  universal  and  unquestioned  Pastor,  approved  by  the 
whole  Church ;  and,  in  the  next  place,  there  must  be  made  a 
certain  limitation  and  modification  of  the  power  of  the  said 
pastor ;  which  power  is  at  present  excessive,  and  has  grievously 
impaired  and  damaged  the  rights  of  other  prelates."  * 

The  same  maxims  were  asserted,  but  in  more  unmeasured 
language,  by  Gerson's  colleagues,  the  doctors  deputed  to  the 
Council  by  the  University  of  Paris.  "  The  Church  militant," 
they  observed,  "  is  more  necessary  than  the  Pope ;  for  men  can 
be  saved  without  the  Pope,  whereas  beyond  the  Church  there  is 
no  salvation.  The  Church  is  better  than  the  Pope  ;  because  the 
Pope  is  made  for  the  Church  ;  now,  as  Aristotle  teaches,  the  end 
is  superior  to  the  means.  The  Church  is  more  honourable  than 
the  Pope  ;  for  Christ  multiplies  upon  her  gifts  and  graces  with- 
out number,  which  cannot  be  said  of  the  person  of  the  Pope. 
The  Church  is  stronger  than  the  Pope  ;  since  the  gates  of  hell, 
that  is  the  vices  and  heresies  of  mankind,  have  never  prevailed 
against  her;  whereas  they  have  often  prevailed  against  the 
Pope.  The  Church  is  more  steadfast  in  the  faith  than  the 
Pope ;  for  the  Pope  has  sometimes  departed  from  the  faith,  which 
can  never  be  the  case  with  the  universal  Church.  The  Pope 
receives  from  the  Church  the  trust  of  sovereign  authority ;  for 
he  derives  it  through  the  ministry  of  those  who  elect  him.  It 
follows  that  the  power  which  belongs  actually  to  the  Pope 
belongs  habitually  to  the  universal  Church.  The  Church  law- 
fully assembled  can  in  certain  cases  arraign,  condemn,  and  even 
depose  the  Pope ;  because,  since  the  Pope  acquires  his  power 
from  the  Church,  the  Church  can  deprive  him  of  it,  should  it 
be  abused.  The  Church,  represented  by  a  General  Council,  has 
more  authority  than  the  Pope,  because  the  Council  can  frame 
decrees  which  the  Pope  is  bound  to  observe.  Hence  St.  Gre- 
gory declared  that  he  would  not  believe  the  Gospels  unless  he 
were  determined  to  such  belief  by  the  authority  and  witness 
of  the  Church."  The  Parisian  divines  affirmed  in  conclusion 
that  the  Church  could  not  take  any  more  effectual  step  towards 
its  own  thorough  reformation  than  to  prescribe  the  regular  con- 


*  Gerson,  "  De  modis  uniendi  et  reformandi  Ecclesiam,"  in  Von  der  Hardt, 
Condi.  Constant.,  torn.  ii.  Pt.  v. 


IN TROD. 


THE  DECKEES  OF  CONSTANCE. 


91 


tinuation  of  General  Councils  ;  at  the  same  time  by  no  means 
omitting  the  due  celebration  of  Provincial  Councils.* 

The  strong  predominance  of  Gallican  opinion  at  Constance 
found  expression  in  the  well-known  decrees  passed  by  the  Council 
in  its  fourth  and  fifth  sessions,  in  spite  of  vehement  opposition 
from  the  cardinals  and  bishops  of  the  Italian  "  nation." 

"  This  holy  Synod  of  Constance,  being  a  General  Council  law- 
fully assembled  in  the  name  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  represent- 
ing the  Church  militant,  has  received  immediately  from  Jesus 
Christ  a  power  to  which  all  persons  of  whatever  rank  and  dig- 
nity, not  excepting  the  Pope  himself,  are  bound  to  submit  in 
those  matters  which  concern  the  faith,  the  extirpation  of  the 
existing  schism,  and  the  reformation  of  the  Church  in  its  head 
and  its  members."! 

"  Whosoever,  be  his  dignity  what  it  may,  without  excepting 
the  Pope,  shall  obstinately  refuse  to  obey  the  statutes,  ordi- 
nances, and  precepts  of  the  present  Council,  or  of  any  other 
General  Council  lawfully  assembled,  shall  be  subjected,  unless 
he  repent,  to  proportionate  penance,  and  punished  according  to 
his  deserts,  recourse  being  had,  if  necessary,  to  the  assistance  of 
the  secular  arm." 

By  other  articles  it  was  declared  that  the  Council  could  not  be 
transferred  or  dissolved  without  its  own  consent :  and  all  the 
ecclesiastical  acts  of  John  XXIII.,  from  the  day  of  his  flight 
from  Constance,  were  pronounced  null  and  void.  It  was  like- 
wise enacted  that  a  second  (Ecumenical  Council  should  be  held 
five  years  after  the  dissolution  of  the  present ;  another  at  the 
expiration  of  seven  years  after  the  second,  and  thenceforward 
one  at  the  interval  of  every  ten  years. 

Such  was  the  first  synodical  definition  made  by  the  Western 
Church  as  to  the  relative  powers  and  jurisdiction  of  the  Pope 


*  See  "  Parisiensium  Conclusiones," 
in  Von  der  Hardt,  torn.  ii.  Pt.  10. 

t  In  some  MSS.  the  words "  in  his 
quse  pertinent  ad  Fidem  "  are  wanting ; 
others  do  not  contain  the  clause  "ac 
generalem  reformationem  Ecclesise  Dei 
in  capite  et  in  membris."  This  fact 
was  taken  advantage  of  by  Emmanuel 
Schelstrate,  librarian  of  the  Vatican,  in 
his  edition  of  the  Acts  of  the  Council 
of  Constance,  as  indicating  that  those 
passages  had  been  fraudulently  inter- 
polated ;  and  he  accuses  the  Fathers  of 
Basle  of  fabricating  them  for  the  sake 


of  establishing  more  completely  Ihe 
subjection  of  the  Pope  to  the  Council. 
But  the  charge  is  unfounded.  In  many 
copies,  some  of  them  of  contemporary 
date,  the  decree  appears  precisely  as 
it  here  stands ;  and  all  the  records  of 
the  following  session,  in  which  it  was 
discussed  and  enacted  a  second  time, 
concur  in  relating  it  in  the  same  exact 
terms.  Cf.  Bossuet,  Defens.  Declarat. 
Cl.  Gall,  Pt.  I.  Lib.  v.  capp.  3, 4.  Maim- 
bourg,  Traite  Hislorique  des  Prerog.  de 
I'Eijl.  de  Rome,  cap.  23.  Contin  de 
Fleury,  Liv.  cii.  175. 


92 


THE  GALLICAN  CHUECH. 


INTROD. 


and  a  General  Council.  The  position  of  affairs  at  that  crisis 
rendered  such  an  utterance  needful  and  unavoidable ;  but  it 
cannot  be  denied  that  an  element  of  strife  was  thus  introduced, 
which  developed  step  by  step  into  a  series  of  calamitous  results. 

From  this  moment  may  be  dated  the  formal  divergence  of 
the  Cisalpine  or  Gallican  from  the  Ultramontane  theology. 
Every  ingenious  device  has  been  exhausted  by  the  latter  school 
in  order  to  evade  and  nullify  the  force  of  these  memorable  de- 
crees of  Constance.*  But  the  attempt  is  in  no  slight  degree 
embarrassing.  For,  on  the  one  hand,  it  would  be  suicidal  to 
deny  the  authority  of  the  Council,  because  the  deposition  of 
John  XXIII.,  the  election  of  Martin  V.,  and  the  succession  of 
subsequent  Popes,  would  thereby  be  invalidated.  Yet,  on  the 
other,  these  acts  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  sessions,  if  taken  in  their 
widest  sense,  are  felt  to  be  fatal  to  the  theory  of  the  Pope's 
absolute  monarchy.  Various  arguments  have  been  advanced 
to  meet  the  difficulty.  It  is  alleged  that  the  Council  did  not 
intend  to  lay  down  a  theological  truth  of  universal  obligation, 
but  only  to  assert  a  rule  of  discipline  applicable  to  abnormal 
circumstances,  such  as  prevailed  during  the  schism.  It  is 
obvious,  however,  that  the  Fathers  of  Constance  go  further  than 
this ;  they  predicate  of  "  any  other  General  Council  lawfully 
assembled "  the  same  authority,  legislative  and  judicial,  which 
they  claimed  for  their  own  tribunal  then  sitting.  And,  more- 
over, among  the  famous  articles  of  reformation  which  were 
adopted  in  their  fortieth  session  (Oct.  30,  1417),  and  which  the 
Pope  elect  engaged  to  propose  for  consideration  at  the  meeting 
of  the  Council  next  ensuing,  was  one  (art.  13)  entitled  "  Propter 
qua3  et  quomodo  Papa  possit  corrigi  et  deponi."f  Whence  it  is 
clear  that  the  possibility  was  contemplated  of  circumstances 
which  might  compel  the  Church  again  to  exercise  its  juridical 
power  over  the  Pope,  as  it  had  done  on  the  late  occasions.  This 
seems  decisive  as  to  the  mind  and  purpose  of  those  who  framed 
the  decrees  of  Constance. 

But  it  is  asserted,  again,  that  the  obnoxious  definitions  were 
never  confirmed  by  the  Pope,  and  consequently  have  no  canoni- 
cal authority.  Martin  V.,  who  was  elected  in  November,  1417, 


*  The  most  forcible  argument  against 
them,  however,  is  one  which  cannot  be 
employed  by  Ultramontaues  consistently 
with  their  principles,  namely,  that  the 


Council  of  Constance  was  not  (Ecume- 
nical, but  only  a  synod  of  the  Western 
Patriarchate,  or  Roman  obedience. 
i  Von  der  Hardt,  torn.  iv.  p.  1449. 


INTROD.  ULTRAMONTANE  OBJECTIONS.  93 

and  presided  in  the  four  concluding  sessions  of  the  Council,  ex- 
pressed his  approval  in  general  terms  of  all  its  acts  which  had 
been  passed  "  conciliariter ; "  *  but  Bellarmine  and  others  con- 
tend that  the  particular  acts  in  question  were  not  such,  inas- 
much as  they  were  not  preceded  by  full  and  mature  synodical 
discussion.  They  therefore  consider  that  the  acts  referred  to  in 
the  bull  of  confirmation  were  those  only  by  which  the  Council 
condemned  the  heresies  of  Wickliff  and  John  Huss. 

It  will  be  allowed,  however,  that  among  the  conciliar  acts 
which  were  confirmed  by  Martin  V.,  that  of  the  deposition  of 
John  XXIIL,  his  predecessor,  must  be  included ;  for,  unless  that 
was  a  canonical  proceeding,  he  himself  was  not  the  lawful 
occupant  of  the  Apostolic  See.  Yet  that  act  demonstrated  the 
supremacy  of  a  General  Council  over  the  Pope ;  and  that  not  over 
a  doubtful  Pope,  but  over  one  acknowledged  by  the  Council 
itself  to  be  the  true  and  rightful  successor  of  Peter.  Implicitly, 
therefore,  Martin  confirmed  the  doctrine  asserted  by  the  Council, 
even  supposing  that  he  did  not  expressly  confirm  the  definitions 
of  the  fourth  and  fifth  sessions. 

This  argument  was  pressed  against  him  with  conclusive  effect 
by  Gerson  in  his  treatise  on  the  right  of  appeal  from  the  Pope 
to  a  General  Council.  "If  it  be  not  lawful,"  he  says,  "  to  appeal 
from  the  individual  Pope  to  a  Council  which  represents  the 
whole  Church  Catholic,  then  such  a  Council  is  not  the  supreme 
tribunal  of  the  Church ;  but  if  the  Council  is  not  possessed  of 
such  sovereign  jurisdiction,  then  the  Council  of  Constance  had 
no  right  to  depose  John  XXIIL ;  consequently  he  is  still  the 
legitimate  Pope,  and  his  Holiness  Martin  V.,  in  that  case,  is  no 
more  than  a  pretender."  | 

Upon  the  whole,  the  language  of  Pope  Martin,  both  on  the 
occasion  above  referred  to,  and  in  his  bull  of  February  22,  1418, 
must  be  held  to  signify  the  assent  of  that  Pontiff  to  all  doctrinal 
definitions  made  at  Constance,  including  those  which  have  since 
been  so  warmly  controverted.  Nor  does  it  appear,  after  all,  on 
a  dispassionate  view  of  the  case,  that  anything  is  propounded 


*  See  the  Pope's  reply  to  the  am- 
bassadors of  the  king  of  Poland.  Von 
der  Hardt,  torn.  iv.  p.  1549.  Lenfant, 
H.  du  C.  de  Constance,  torn.  ii.  p.  609. 
The  m(  aning  of  the  word  "  conci- 
liaiiter"  has  been  much  contested. 
I  cannot  doubt  that  Edm.  RicLer's 


opinion  is  the  right  one,  that  it  implies 
"in  full  Council,"  "in  a  regular  ses- 
sion."— Richer,  Hist.  Concil.  Gen.,  torn, 
ii.  p.  254.  See  also  Ant.  Arnauld., 
CEuvres,  torn.  x.  p.  728. 
t  Gerson,  Opp  ,  torn.  ii.  p.  30G. 


94  THE  GALL1CAN  CHURCH.  INTBOD. 

in  those  definitions  which  is  either  beyond  or  beside  the  imme- 
morial tradition  of  the  Church.  Was  it  a  novel  doctrine,  that 
an  (Ecumenical  Council  has  authority  to  make  laws  for  the 
whole  Christian  community,  and  that  the  Pope,  more  directly 
than  any  other  individual,  is  bound  to  conform  to  them,  to  main- 
tain their  integrity,  and  to  enforce  their  observance?  Had  not 
this  truth  been  acknowledged  most  emphatically  by  the  Popes 
themselves  for  ages  anterior  to  the  Council  of  Constance  ?  Do  not 
their  official  professions  and  protestations  on  this  subject  occupy 
page  after  page  in  the  collected  code  of  ecclesiastical  jurispru- 
dence ?  The  decrees  of  Constance,  fairly  construed,  amount  to 
no  more. than  this,  that  it  is  obligatory  on  the  Pope  to  obey  the 
canons  of  (Ecumenical  Councils.  Why  should  such  a  declaration 
be  less  acceptable  to  Popes  of  the  fifteenth  century  than  it  was  to 
those  of  the  fifth  ?  \Vhy  should  Martin  and  Eugenius  hesitate  to 
sanction  it,  while  it  is  endorsed  by  the  concurrent  testimony  of 
their  predecessors  of  happy  memory,  Zosimus,  Boniface,  Gela- 
sius,  S.  Leo,  S.  Gregory,  Leo  IV.,  and  many  others  ? 

But  although  the  doctrine  of  the  supremacy  of  General  Councils, 
thus  authoritatively  proclaimed,  is  of  the  deepest  importance  as 
a  rule  of  ecclesiastical  polity,  De  Marca  and  other  authors  warn 
us  against  the  mistake  of  supposing  that  the  so-called  "  liberties 
of  the  Gallican  Church "  consist  wholly,  or  even  chiefly,  in  the 
maintenance  of  this  abstract  principle.*  The  true  liberty  of 
the  Church,  whether  in  France  or  elsewhere,  lies  in  its  being 
governed  in  conformity  with  the  ancient  canons,  and  with  those 
laws  which  from  time  to  time  are  enacted  synodically,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  original  principles  of  its  constitution. 

In  pursuance  of  the  arrangement  made  at  Constance,  a  Council 
was  convened  at  Pavia  in  1423 ;  but  after  a  few  weeks  it  was 
transferred  to  Sienna,  and  thence  subsequently  to  Basle.  Eu- 
genius IV.,  who  succeeded  Martin,  apprehending  probably  that 
this  assembly,  if  permitted  to  proceed  independently,  would 
follow  in  the  track  of  that  of  Constance,  and  apply  itself  with 
indiscreet  zeal  to  the  work  of  reform,  attempted  to  dissolve  it,  and 
proposed  that  it  should  meet  a  year  later  at  Bologna,  where  it 
would  have  been  in  great  measure  under  his  own  dictation. 
This  led  to  a  rupture  between  the  Pope  and  the  Council ;  and 


De  Marca,  De  ConccnL,  Lib.  iii.  cap.  7,  §§  1,  2. 


INTROD. 


COUNCIL  OF  BASLE. 


95 


years  of  confused  strife  ensued  (into  the  details  of  which  it  is 
unnecessary  to  enter)  totally  frustrating  the  measures  so 
urgently  required  for  the  purification  of  the  Church. 

The  position  assumed  by  the  Gallican  Church  at  this  juncture 
was  peculiar,  and  in  some  respects  questionable.  It  declared 
decidedly  in  favour  of  the  Council  of  Basle  ;  many  French  pre- 
lates repaired  thither,  and  ambassadors  were  sent  by  the  King, 
Charles  VII.,  to  Pope  Eugenius,  to  beseech  him  to  support  the 
authority  of  the  Synod,  and  to  protest  against  its  dissolution. 
The  Fathers  stood  firm  at  their  post,  appealing  to  the  principles 
solemnly  asserted  at  Constance,  that  the  Pope  is  bound  in 
certain  specified  cases  to  submit  to  an  (Ecumenical  Council,  and 
that  the  latter  cannot  be  translated,  prorogued,  or  dissolved, 
without  its  own  consent.*  The  gift  of  infallibility,  they  affirmed, 
resides  in  the  collective  Church.  It  does  not  belong  to  the 
Popes,  several  of  whom  have  erred  concerning  the  Faith.  The 
Church  alone  has  authority  to  enact  laws  which  are  binding 
on  the  whole  body  of  the  faithful.  Now,  the  authority  of 
General  Councils  is  identical  with  that  of  the  Church.  This 
was  expressly  determined  by  the  Council  of  Constance,  and 
acknowledged  by  Pope  Martin  V.  The  Pope  is  the  ministerial 


*  One  of  the  chief  authorities  for 
the  proceedings  of  the  Council  of  Basle 
is  .(Eneas  Sylvius  Piccolomini  (after- 
wards Pope  Pius  II.),  who  acted  as  its 
secretary  and  amanuensis'.  His  view 
of  the  relation  of  the  Pope  to  the 
Church  was  at  this  time  decidedly  of 
the  Gallican  type.  "The  Pope,"  he 
says,  "though  called  the  head  of  the 
Church,  cannot  stand  in  the  same  rela- 
tion to  the  ecclesiastical  body  as  a  man's 
head  dops  to  the  natural  body,  other- 
wise it  would  follow  that,  as  when  the 
head  is  severed,  the  body  is  instantly 
deprived  of  life,  so  when  the  Pope  ex- 
pires, the  Church  is  extinguished  like- 
wise, which  were  absurd.  Whatever 
others  may  believe,"  he  continues,  "  I 
cannot  agree  with  those  who  hold  the 
Pope  to  be  the  head  of  the  Church, 
except  in  the  sense  of  its  ministerial 
-  head ;  for  we  read  that  Christ  is  the 
Head  of  the  Church,  not  Ihe  Pope;  it 
is  |He  who  is  the  true,  unchangeable, 
perpetual,  and  eternal  Head.  The  Roman 
Pontiff  is  no  more  than  the  Vicar  (lo- 
cum tenens)  of  the  true  Head ;  but  the 


Church  is  the  body  of  Christ  himself, 
of  which  even  the  Pope  is  but  a  member. 
Moreover,  lie  is  the  Vicar  of  Christ,  not 
for  the  destruction,  but  for  the  edifica- 
tion of  the  Church,  which  is  His  body. 
Wherefore,  if  he  should  prove  hurtful 
and  pernicious,  he  may  be  deposed,  for 
lie  does  not  fulfil  the  end  for  which  he 
was  instituted." — Mn.  Sylv.,  Comment, 
de  Gestis  Basiliens.  Condi.,  Lib.  i. 
Subsequently,  however,  when  elevated 
to  the  Pontifical  chair,  Pius  II.  saw 
reason  to  discard  these  and  other  cog- 
nate sentiments  of  his  earlier  days,  and 
even  to  retract  them  in  a  formal  docu- 
ment. See  the  "Retractatio  Pii  Se- 
cundi,''  in  Guimier  and  Pinsson,  Praym. 
Sanct.  et  Concordat.,  p.  841  et  seq.  The 
whole  case  between  the  Councils  of 
Constance  and  Basle,  and  Popps  Martin 
and  Eugenius,  is  powerfully  discussed 
by  the  Archbishop  of  Palermo  in  his 
elaborate  Treatise,  Panormitanus  de 
Concilio  Basiliensi,  printed  by  Guimier 
and  Pinsson,  Fragm.  Sanct.  et  Con- 
cordat., p.  849. 


96  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  INTBOP. 

head  of  the  Church,  but  he  is  not  its  absolute  sovereign ;  on  the 
contrary,  facts  prove  that  he  is  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Church  ;  for  well-known  instances  are  on  record  of  Popes  being 
deposed  on  the  score  of  erroneous  doctrine  and  immoral  life, 
whereas  no  Pope  has  ever  attempted  to  condemn  or  excommu- 
nicate the  Church.  Both  the  Pope  and  the  Church  have 
received  authority  to  bind  and  loose  ;  but  the  Church  has  prac- 
tically exerted  that  authority  against  the  Pope,  whereas  the 
latter  has  never  ventured  to  take  any  such  step  against  the 
Church.  In  fine,  the  words  of  Christ  himself  are  decisive  of 
the  question — "  If  any  man  neglect  to  hear  the  Church,  let  him 
be  unto  you  as  a  heathen  man  and  a  publican."  This  injunction 
was  addressed  to  St.  Peter  equally  with  the  rest  of  the  disciples.* 

The  Council  proceeded  to  cite  Eugenius  by  a  formal  monition 
to  appear  in  person  at  Basle ;  and  on  his  failing  to  comply, 
they  signified  that  on  the  expiration  of  a  further  interval  of 
sixty  days,  ulterior  means  would  be  put  in  force  against  him. 
Their  firmness,  added  to  the  pressing  solicitations  of  the  Emperor 
Sigismund,  at  length  induced  the  Pope  to  yield.  He  reconciled 
himself  with  the  Council  in  December,  1433 ;  acknowledged 
that  it  had  been  legitimately  convoked  ;  approved  its  proceed- 
ings up  to  that  date ;  and  cancelled  the  act  by  which  he  had 
pronounced  its  dissolution.! 

Elated  by  this  triumph,  the  Basilian  fathers  commenced 
in  earnest  the  task  of  church  reform,  and  passed  several  de- 
crees of  a  character  vexatious  to  the  Pope,  particularly  one  for 
the  total  abolition  of  annates.  A  second  breach  was  the  con- 
sequence. Eugenius,  under  pretence  of  furthering  the  nego- 
ciation  then  pending  for  the  reunion  of  the  Greek  and  Latin 
branches  of  the  Church,  published  in  1437  a  bull  dissolving  the 
Council  of  Basle,  and  summoning  another  to  meet  at  Eerrara. 
The  assembly  at  Basle  retorted  by  declaring  the  Pope  contu- 
macious, and  suspending  him  from  the  exercise  of  all  authority. 
Both  parties  proceeded  eventually  to  the  last  extremities.  The 
Council,  after  proclaiming  afresh,  as  "  Catholic  verities,"  that  a 
General  Council  has  power  over  the  Pope,  and  cannot  be  trans- 
ferred or  dissolved  but  by  its  own  act,  passed  a  definitive 

*  See  the  synodical  reply  of  the  Fathers  of  Basle  to  the  Pope's  legates  in 
Labbe,  Condi.,  torn.  xii. 

f  Raynalcl,  Ann.,  torn.  ix.  p.  164. 


INTROD.  NATIONAL  COUNCIL  OF  BOURGES.  97 

sentence  in  its  thirty-fourth  session  (June  25,  1439)  deposing 
Eugenius  from  the  Papal  throne.  The  Pope  retaliated  by  stig- 
matizing the  fathers  of  Basle  as  schismatical  and  heretical, 
cancelling  their  acts,  and  excommunicating  their  president,  the 
Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Aries.* 

Meanwhile  an  energetic  and  independent  line  of  action  was 
adopted  by  the  government  in  France.  The  Crown,  in  concert 
with  the  heads  of  the  Church,  availed  itself  of  a  train  of  events 
which  had  so  seriously  damaged  the  prestige  of  the  Papacy,  to 
make  a  decisive  advance  in  the  path  of  practical  reform,  and 
to  establish  the  long-cherished  Gallican  privileges  on  a  secure 
basis.  For  this  purpose  Charles  VII.  assembled  a  great  National 
Council  at  Bourges,  in  July,  1438,  at  which  he  presided  in  per- 
son, surrounded  by  the  princes  of  his  family,  and  by  all  the  most 
eminent  dignitaries  spiritual  and  temporal ;  and  here  was  pro- 
mulgated the  memorable  ordinance  known  as  the  "  Pragmatic 
Sanction  of  Bourges." 

The  French  Church,  it  must  be  observed,  did  not  recognise 
the  deposition  of  Pope  Eugenius,  but  adhered  to  his  obedience, 
rejecting  Felix  V.,  whom  the  Council  of  Basle  elected  to  succeed 
him,  as  a  pretender.  It  continued,  nevertheless,  to  support  the 
Council,  and  to  assert  its  supreme  legislative  authority.  Hence 
there  arises  a  considerable  difficulty  in  limine  as  to  the  character 
of  the  proceedings  at  Bourges.  For  the  deposition  of  Eugenius 
was  either  a  rightful  and  valid  exercise  of  conciliar  authority, 
or  it  was  not.  If  it  was  not — if  the  Council  had  wrongfully  and 
uncanonically  condemned  the  successor  of  Peter — how  could  it 
be  infallible  ?  and  why  should  its  legislation  in  other  particulars  be 
indisputable  ?  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  deposition  was  a  valid 
one,  with  what  consistency  could  the  French  continue  to  regard 
Eugenius  as  their  legitimate  pastor  ?  It  was  a  knotty  dilemma. 

The  position,  however,  though  logically  open  to  objections, 
was  not  without  its  practical  advantages.  For,  since  France 
maintained  a  good  understanding  with  both  the  contending 
parties,  both  found  it  conducive  to  their  interest  to  send 
deputations  to  the  Council  of  Bourges;  Pope  Eugenius,  with 


*  The  Ultramontane  arguments  against 
the  validity  of  the  proceedings  at  Basle 
are  to  be  found  at  length  in  Ordinal 
Torqueumda's  Summa  de  Ecclesia,  from 


which,  an  extract  is  given  by  Kaynald, 
ad  ann.  1432.  Torquemada  (or  De  Tur- 
recremata)  was  the  Pope's  "  theologian  " 
at  the  Council. 


VOL.  I.  H 


98  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  INTROD. 

a  view  to  obtain  its  support  for  the  rival  council  which  he  had 
opened  at  Ferrara ;  the  fathers  of  Basle,  in  order  to  make  known 
their  decrees,  which,  as  agreeing  with  the  received  doctrine  of 
Gallican  theologians,  would,  it  was  hoped,  meet  with  a  cordial 
welcome  throughout  France.  The  assembly  at  Bourges  did  not 
fail  to  profit  by  these  exceptional  circumstances.  It  accepted 
the  decrees  of  Basle,  yet  not  absolutely,  but  after  critical  exami- 
nation, and  with  certain  modifications; — a  course  which,  by 
implication,  asserted  a  right  to  legislate  for  the  concerns  of 
the  French  Church  even  independently  of  a  General  Council 
acknowledged  to  be  orthodox.  The  following  explanation  of 
this  proceeding  was  inserted  in  the  preamble  of  the  celebrated 
statute  finally  agreed  upon  by  the  authorities  at  Bourges.  It  is 
there  stated  that  this  policy  was  adopted  "  not  from  any  hesita- 
tion as  to  the  authority  of  the  Council  of  Basle  to  enact  and 
promulgate  ecclesiastical  decrees,  but  because  it  was  judged  ad- 
visable to  adapt  those  decrees  to  the  usages,  circumstances,  and 
requirements  of  the  French  realm  and  nation."*  So  that  it 
appears,  on  the  whole,  that  while  the  French  professed  great  zeal 
on  this  occasion  for  the  dogma  of  the  superiority  of  a  General 
Council  over  the  Pope,  the  principle  practically  illustrated  at 
Bourges  was  that  of  the  supremacy  of  a  National  Council  over 
every  other  ecclesiastical  authority.!  Such  were  the  anomalies 
which  arose  out  of  the  strange  necessities  of  the  time. 

The  Pragmatic  Sanction  of  Bourges  J  embraces  twenty-three 
articles.  The  first  treats  of  the  authority  of  General  Councils, 
and  of  the  time  and  manner  of  convening  and  celebrating  them. 
The  second  relates  to  ecclesiastical  elections,  which  are  enjoined 
to  be  made  hereafter  in  strict  accordance  with  the  canons,  by 
the  cathedral,  collegiate,  and  conventual  chapters.§  Eeserves, 

*  "  Non  hsesitatione  potestatis  et  auc-  [       J  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  torn.  xiii.  p. 

toritatis  condentis  et  promulgantis,  sci-  ;  267. 

licet  ipsius  sacrse  Basiliensis  Synodi,  j       §  Sir  James  Stephen,  in  one  of  his 

sed  quatenus  commoditatibus,  tempori-  |  Lectures  on  the  History  of  France  (vol.  i. 

bus,  et  moribus  regionum  et  person  arum  p.  405,  3rd  Edit.),  has  fallen  into  the 

ssepe  fatorum  nostrorum  Eegni  et  Del-  curious  mistake  of  supposing  that  the 

phinatus  congruere  convenireque  con-  Pragmatic  Sanction  legalised  the  nomi- 

grue  jurequeconspexerunt."  nation  ly  tlie  Crown  to  the  bishoprics 

t  "TantS,    lihertate    in  recipiendis,  |  and  other  Church   dignities;  and  he 

rejiciendis,  truncandis,ampliandis  Basi-  ;   describes  this  as  constituting  the  "  Gal- 

liensium  placitis  usi  sunt,  ut  patentis-  j  lican  liberties."    On  the  contrary,  that 

Bime  se  etiam  judices  Conciliorum  Ge-  edict  restored,  in  distinct  terms,  "  the 

neralium  qunle  Basiliense  prse  se  fere-  canonical  elections  to  all  metropolitan, 

bant,    oonstituerint." — Spondanus,   ad  \  cathedral,   collegiate,  and    conventual 

aim.  1438.  churches,  according  to  the  provisions  of 


INTROD.  PRAGMATIC  SANCTION  OF  BOURGES.  99 

annates,  and  "  expective  graces,"  are  abolished ;  the  rights  of 
patrons  are  to  be  respected,  provided  their  nominees  be  graduates 
of  the  Universities,  and  otherwise  well  qualified.  The  Pope  re- 
tains only  a  veto  in  case  of  unfitness  or  uncauonical  election, 
and  the  nomination  to  benefices  "in  curia  vacantia,"  i.e.,  of 
which  the  incumbents  may  happen  to  die  at  Rome,  or  within 
two  days'  journey  of  the  Pontifical  residence.  The  King  and 
other  princes  may  occasionally  recommend  or  request  the  pro- 
motion of  persons  of  special  merit,  but  without  threats  or  violent 
pressure  of  any  kind.* 

Other  articles  regulate  the  order  of  ecclesiastical  appeals,  which, 
with  the  exception  of  the  "  causse  majores  "  specified  by  law,  and 
those  relating  to  the  elections  in  cathedral  and  conventual 
churches,  are  henceforth  to  be  decided  on  the  spot  by  the  ordi- 
nary judges  ;  appeals  are  to  be  carried  in  all  cases  to  the  court 
immediately  superior ;  no  case  to  be  referred  to  the  Pope 
"  omisso  medio,"  i.  e.,  without  passing  through  the  intermediate 
tribunals.  The  remaining  clauses  consist  of  regulations  for  the 
performance  of  Divine  service,  and  various  matters  of  discipline. 

The  reader  will  remember  that  Pope  Eugenius,  on  the  occa- 
sion of  his  temporary  reconciliation  with  the  Council  of  Basle 
in  1433,  expressed  his  approbation  of  all  its  synodal  acts  up 
to  that  date  ;  and  this  sanction  of  their  validity  is  held  by  Gal- 
licans  to  extend  to  the  period  of  the  second  and  final  rupture  in 
1437.f  It  follows  that  the  provisions  of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction 
of  Bourges,  so  far  as  they  coincide  with  the  decrees  of  Basle 
prior  to  1437,  were  authorized  by  the  Holy  See ;  and  this  in- 
cludes them  all  with  two  exceptions.  J 


the  common  law."  It  was  this  right  of 
canonical  election  that  formed  the  key- 
stone of  the  "  liberty  "  of  the  Gallican 
Church;  the  practice  of  Koyal  nomi- 
nation was  a  contravention,  evasion, 
and  abuse  of  that  invaluable  franchise. 
In  order  to  obtain  a  statutable  right 
to  nominate  the  prelates  of  the  realm, 
the  Crown  was  obliged  to  abolish  the 
Pragmatic  Sanction,  which  was  re- 
placed by  the  Concordat  of  Bologna. 

*  "  Nee  credit  ipsa  congregatio  Bitu- 
ricensis  fore  reprehensibile,  si  Hex  et 
principes  regni  sui  (cessantibus  tamen 
omnibus  comminationibus  et  quibuslibet 
violentiis)  aliquando  utantur  precibus 


bene  mentis  et  zelantibus  bonum  Rei- 
publicaa,  regni,  et  Delphinatus." 

t  Continwt,  de  Fleury,  Hist.  Eccles., 
Liv.  106,  §§  83  et  seqq. 

J  Ellies-Dupin,  Hist.  Eccles.  Cent. 
XVI.,  Liv.  i.  cap.  1.  The  two  excep- 
tions were  the  article  on  collations  to 
benefices,  and  that  on  the  hearing  of 
ecclesiastical  causes.  Eugenius,  in  his 
bull  "Moyses,"  dated  at  Florence  in 
1439,  annuls  all  the  proceedings  at 
Basle  subsequent  to  the  translation  of 
the  Council,  and  inveighs  with  special 
severity  against  the  three  "Catholic 
verities"  above  mentioned,  alleging 
that  they  are  based  on  a  misinterpreta- 


benignis  atque  benevolis  pro  personis      tion  and  perversion  of  the  decrees  of 

H   2 


100 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


INTROD. 


The  Pragmatic  Sanction  was  registered  by  the  Parliament  of 
Paris  on  the  13th  of  July,  1439 ;  becoming  thereby  part  of  the 
statute  law  of  France.  Its  publication  caused  universal  satis- 
faction throughout  the  kingdom.  At  Eome,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
was  indignantly  censured  and  resolutely  opposed.  Eugenius  IV. 
vainly  strove  to  obtain  the  King's  consent  to  an  alteration  of 
some  of  its  details.  Nicolas  V.  protested  against  it  without 
effect ;  but  the  superior  genius  and  subtle  measures  of  Pius  II. 
were  more  successful.  This  Pontiff  denounced  the  Pragmatic  at 
the  Council  of  Mantua  in  1460,  as  "  a  blot  which  disfigured  the 
Church  of  France;  a  decree  which  no  (Ecumenical  Council 
would  have  passed,  nor  any  Pope  have  confirmed ;  a  principle 
of  confusion  in  the  ecclesiastical  hierarchy.  Since  it  had  been 
in  force,  the  laity  had  become  the  masters  and  judges  of  the 
clergy ;  the  power  of  the  spiritual  sword  could  no  longer  be 
exerted  except  at  the  good  pleasure  of  the  secular  authority. 
The  Roman  Pontiff,  whose  diocese  embraced  the  world,  whose 
jurisdiction  is  not  bounded  even  by  the  ocean,  possessed  only 
such  extent  of  power  in  France  as  the  Parliament  might  see 
fit  to  allow  him."  The  ambassadors  of  Charles  VII.,  however, 
reminded  his  Holiness  that  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  was  founded 
on  the  canons  of  Constance  and  Basle,  which  had  been  ratified 
by  his  predecessors ;  and  when  the  Pope  proceeded  to  threaten 
France  with  an  interdict,  and  to  prohibit  all  appeal  from  his 
decisions  to  a  future  council,*  the  King  caused  his  procureur- 
general,  Jean  Dauvet,  to  publish  an  official  protest  against  these 
acts  of  violence,  concluding  with  a  solemn  appeal  to  the  judg- 
ment of  the  Church  Catholic  assembled  by  representation. 
While  awaiting  that  event,  Charles  declared  himself  resolved  to 
uphold  the  laws  and  regulations  which  had  been  sanctioned  by 
previous  Councils.f 

Louis  XL,  urged  by  alternate  menaces,  entreaties,  and  flattery 
from  Rome,  revoked  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  shortly  after  his 
accession.  The  step  accorded  well  with  his  own  arbitrary 
temper;  for  he  could  not  endure  the  privilege  of  free  election 


Constance.  He  omits,  however,  to 
specify  what  is  the  true  meaning  of 
those  decrees ;  merely  observing  that 
they  were  passed  during  the  schism, 
and  by  one  only  out  of  the  three  "  obe- 
diences," after  the  departure  of  John 


XXIII.  —  Raynald..  Ann.,  torn.  ix.  p. 
316. 

*  By  the  famous  Constitution  "  Exe- 
crabilis." — Labbe,  Condi.,  torn.  xiii.  p. 
1801. 

t  Confin.  de  Fleury,  Liv.  cxi.  §  147. 


INTEOD.  DEFENCE  OF  PRAGMATIC  SANCTION.  101 

by  the  cathedral  and  monastic  chapters ;  nor  was  he  less  jealous 
of  the  influence  exerted,  under  the  shelter  of  that  privilege,  by 
the  high  feudal  nobility  in  the  disposal  of  Church  preferment. 
He  seems  to  have  expected,  moreover,  that  while  ostensibly 
conceding  the  right  of  patronage  to  the  Apostolic  See,  he  should 
be  able  to  retain  the  real  power  in  his  own  hands.  The  event 
disappointed  his  calculations.  No  sooner  was  the  decree  of 
Bourges  rescinded,  than  the  Pope  resumed  and  enforced  his 
claim  to  the  provision  of  benefices  in  France.  Simony,  and  the 
whole  train  of  concomitant  abuses,  reappeared  more  scandalously 
than  ever ;  and  Louis  found  himself  despised  by  his  subjects  as 
the  dupe  of  Papal  artifice. 

The  Parliamentary  Courts,  meanwhile,  assumed  a  determined 
attitude  in  defence  of  the  right  of  election  guaranteed  by  the 
Pragmatic  Sanction.  They  pronounced  the  abolition  of  that 
act  illegal,  and  treated  it  as  null  and  void ;  they  insisted  on 
their  own  authority  in  entertaining  appeals  against  ecclesiastical 
abuses ;  they  eagerly  supported  any  one  who  showed  a  disposi- 
tion to  withstand  the  pretensions  of  Rome  in  the  matter  of 
patronage.  The  king,  smarting  under  the  trickery  of  the  Pope, 
made  no  attempt  to  restrain  them  in  this  line  of  conduct ;  and 
the  result  was  that  the  repeal  of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction 
was  never  fully  executed,  having  never  been  legalized  by  the 
forms  of  the  Constitution.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Popes  so  far 
maintained  the  advantage  they  had  extorted  from  Louis,  that 
the  ancient  franchise  of  the  Church  as  to  elections  became 
virtually  extinct  in  France.* 

Things  remained  in  this  unsettled  state  during  the  reigns  of 
Louis  XI.,  Charles  VIII.,  and  Louis  XII.  The  latter  prince,  on 
coming  to  the  throne,  published  an  edict  re-establishing  the 
Pragmatic  Sanction  ;t  and  this  step,  added  to  his  ambitious 
enterprises  in  Italy,  brought  him  into  hostile  collision  with  Pope 
Julius  II.  The  king,  unwilling  to  make  war  on  the  head  of  the 
Church  without  some  semblance  of  ecclesiastical  sanction,  con- 
voked a  Council  at  Tours  in  September,  1510,  and  consulted 
the  clergy  on  a  series  of  questions  arising  out  of  the  disturbed 
state  of  his  relations  with  Rome.  They  decided,  in  accordance 
with  the  known  views  and  wishes  of  the  sovereign,  that  it  is  lawful 

*  Thomassin,  Vet.  et  Nov.  Eccles.  Discip.,  II.,  Lib.  ii.  cap.  xxxiii.  8. 
f  Ibid.,  Lib.  i.  cap.  45. 


102  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  INTEOD. 

for  an  independent  prince,  if  unjustly  attacked,  to  defend  himself 
against  the  Pope  by  force  of  arms — to  withdraw  for  a  time  from 
his  obedience — to  take  possession  of  the  territory  of  the  Church, 
not  with  the  purpose  of  retaining  it,  but  as  a  temporary  measure 
of  self-protection — and  to  resist  the  pretensions  of  the  Pontiff  to 
powers  not  rightfully  belonging  to  him.  Citations  to  appear  at 
Koine  might,  under  such  circumstances,  be  safely  disregarded ; 
as  also  Papal  censures,  which  would  be  null  and  void.  If  the 
emergency  should  arise,  the  Council  added,  the  king  ought  to 
be  governed  by  the  ancient  principles  of  ecclesiastical  law,  as 
confirmed  and  re-enacted  by  the  Pragmatic  Sanction.* 

The  Gallican  clergy  sent  a  deputation  to  Pope  Julius  on  this 
occasion,  to  entreat  him  to  adopt  a  more  conciliatory  policy 
towards  the  princes  of  Christendom ;  and  they  determined,  in 
case  their  advice  should  be  fruitless,  to  demand  the  convocation 
of  a  General  Council,  to  take  cognizance  of  the  Pope's  conduct, 
and  prescribe  the  measures  necessary  for  the  guidance  and  welfare 
of  the  Church. 

An  ecclesiastical  congress,  calling  itself  a  Council-General, 
but  altogether  unworthy  of  that  august  title,  was  held,  in  fact, 
in  the  following  year  at  Pisa,  under  the  auspices  of  the  King  of 
France  and  the  Emperor  Maximilian.  The  Pope  refused  to 
appear  there,  and  convoked  a  rival  synod  at  Eome,  summoning 
the  cardinals  who  had  authorized  the  meeting  at  Pisa  to  present 
themselves  at  his  court  within  sixty  days.  On  the  expiration  of 
this  term  he  publicly  excommunicated  them,  degraded  them 
from  their  dignity,  and  deprived  them  of  their  preferments. 

Thus  the  Western  Church  once  more  exhibited  the  spectacle 
of  a  "house  divided  against  itself,"  as  during  the  scandalous 
strife  between  the  synods  of  Basle  and  Florence ;  and  for  some 
time  a  formal  schism  appeared  imminent.  The  so-called 
Council  of  Pisa  consisted  of  the  four  rebellious  cardinals,  twenty 
Gallican  prelates,  several  abbots  and  other  dignitaries,  the 
envoys  of  the  King  of  France,  deputies  from  some  of  the  French 
Universities,  and  a  considerable  number  of  Doctors  of  the  Faculty 
of  Paris.  This  assembly  justified  its  position  on  the  ground  that 
there  are  extraordinary  cases  in  which  a  Council  may  be  called 


*  Labbe,  Concil,  torn.  xiii.  p.  1481;  Eayuald,  ad  ann.  1510;  Continual,  de 
Fleury,  Lib.  121,  §  117;  Longueval,  Hist,  de  I'Eglise  Gallicane,  torn.  xxi.  p.  359. 


IxTROD. 


PSEUDO  COUNCIL  OP  PISA. 


103 


without  the  intervention  of  the  Pope ;  and  that,  since  the  present 
Pontiff  had  neglected  to  obey  the  decree  of  the  Council  of  Con- 
stance which  enjoined  a  similar  celebration  at  the  interval  of 
every  ten  years,  the  cardinals  were  bound  to  take  the  initiative 
in  the  matter,  according  to  a  solemn  engagement  which  they  had 
made  in  the  conclave  when  Julius  was  elected.*  After  repeating 
the  stereotyped  formula  concerning  the  supreme  authority  of 
General  Councils,  and  the  imperative  necessity  of  a  reformation 
of  the  Church  in  its  head  and  in  its  members,  the  fathers 
addressed  themselves  professedly  to  the  herculean  task  thus 
indicated ;  but  little  or  nothing  was  effected  of  any  practical 
importance. 

Political  emergencies  compelled  them  ere  long  to  transfer 
their  sessions  to  Milan  ;  f  and  here,  on  the  21st  of  April,  1512, 
they  had  the  hardihood  to  publish  a  decree  suspending  Pope 
Julius  from  all  Pontifical  functions,  as  "  a  notorious  disturber  of 
the  Council,  the  author  of  schism,  contumacious,  incorrigible, 
and  hardened." 

Louis  XII.  accepted  this  sentence  by  a  special  edict,  and 
ordered  it  to  be  registered  and  published  by  the  Parliament  of 
Paris ;  upon  which  the  Pope  replied  by  excommunicating  the 
king,  laying  the  whole  of  his  dominions  under  an  interdict, 
and  absolving  his  subjects  from  their  oath  of  allegiance.}: 
Louis  protested  against  this  bull,  and  further  expressed  his 
indignation  by  causing  coins  to  be  struck  bearing  the  arms  of 
France  encircled  by  the  menacing  legend,  "  Perdam  Babylonis 
nomen."  § 

Victory  declared  eventually  for  the  Pope.  He  succeeded  in 
organizing  a  formidable  coalition  against  the  French;  they 


*  Kaynald,  Annal,,  ad  ann.  1511. 

t  It  was  here  that  they  received  the 
trr  atite  of  Cardinal  di  "Vio,  or  Cajetan, 
"  De  auctoritate  Papae,  et  Concilii  sive 
Ecclesise,  comparata."  This  was  one 
of  the  earliest  expositions  of  the  Ultra- 
montane theory  of  church  government. 
Cajetan  maintains  the  sovereignty  of 
the  Pope  over  the  universal  Church,  but 
does  not  contend  that  he  is  personally 
infallible ;  on  the  contrary,  he  admits 
that  a  Pope  may  fall  into  heresy,  and 
that  in  that  case  a  Council  may  depose 
him.  The  fathers  at  Milan  referred  the 


work  to  the  judgment  of  the  Theolo- 
gical Faculty  of  Paris,  and  that  body 
commissioned  three  doctors  to  write  in 
refutation  of  it.  It  was  not  officially 
condemned  as  a  whole,  but  the  Faculty 
censured  the  author's  attempt  to  dis- 
parage the  Councils  of  Constance  and 
Basle,  and  reaffirmed  the  Gallican  view 
of  their  authority. 

J  Contin.  de  Fkury,  Liv.  cxxii.  §§ 
115, 116,  117. 

§  De  Thou,  Hist.  Univ.,  Liv.  i.  De 
Thou  adds  that  these  coins  were  fre- 
quently met  with  in  his  time. 


104  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  INTBOD. 

were  expelled  ignominiously  from  the  Milanese ;  the  terrified 
members  of  the  pseudo-council  crossed  the  Alps  in  precipitate 
haste,  and  took  refuge  at  Lyons,  where  their  situation  and 
pretensions  were  little  short  of  ridiculous. 

In  the  mean  time  the  fifth  Council  of  Lateran,  styled  by  the 
Roman  Church  oacumenical,  though  its  right  to  that  title  was 
scarcely  better  than  that  of  the  assembly  at  Pisa,  commenced 
its  sittings  on  the  10th  of  May,  1512.*  The  Pope  presided  in 
person,  at  the  head  of  fifteen  cardinals,  and  upwards  of  a  hundred 
prelates,  almost  all  Italian.  Here  the  acts  of  the  schismatical 
assemblies  at  Pisa,  Milan,  and  Lyons  were  solemnly  condemned 
and  annulled,  and  the  censures  pronounced  on  the  King  of 
France  were  confirmed.  In  the  fourth  session  (December  10, 
1512)  a  vigorous  attack  was  made  on  the  Pragmatic  Sanction. 
The  letters-patent  of  Louis  XI.  were  read,  by  which  it  had  been 
suppressed  at  the  instance  of  Pius  II. ;  after  which  a  monition 
was  published  summoning  all  supporters  of  that  act,  of  what- 
soever rank  or  dignity,  to  appear  at  Rome  within  sixty  days,  and 
show  cause  why  it  should  not  be  finally  revoked  and  abolished. 
The  fifth  session  was  not  held  till  the  16th  of  February,  1513  ; 
and  a  few  days  afterwards  the  turbulent  reign  of  Julius  II.  was 
brought  to  a  close  by  death.  The  views  and  policy  of  his 
successor,  Leo  X.,  were  of  a  totally  opposite  character.  He 
made  it  his  first  object  to  restore  peace  to  Christendom;  and 
circumstances  soon  enabled  him  to  arrive  at  a  definitive  adjust- 
ment of  the  perplexing  questions  which  had  been  so  long 
pending  with  the  Government  of  France.  Unfortunately,  that 
adjustment  amounted  to  a  deliberate  betrayal  of  the  first  prin- 
ciples of  the  constitution  of  the  Church ;  principles  which  the 
Apostolic  See  ought  to  have  defended  and  enforced  at  all 
hazards. 

Louis  XII.,  who  was  greatly  disheartend  by  his  late  reverses, 
lost  no  time  in  signifying  his  desire  to  effect  a  reconciliation 
with  the  new  Pope.  This  was  granted  him  on  easy  terms.  The 
French  ambassadors  attended  the  eighth  session  of  the  Lateran 
Council,  and  renounced  in  their  master's  name  the  pretended 
Councils  of  Pisa,  Milan,  and  Lyons,  accepting  that  of  the  Lateran 
as  the  sole  legitimate  and  indubitable  Council,  and  engaging 

*  Labbe,  Condi.,  torn.  xiv.  p.  4. 


INTROD.  CONCOKDAT  OF  BOLOGNA.  105 

that  the  assembly  still  in  session  at  Lyons  should  separate  within 
one  month.  It  was  also  promised  that  a  deputation  of  the 
French  clergy  should  repair  to  Rome  to  solicit  absolution. 
The  fulfilment  of  this  latter  article  was  delayed  upon  various 
pretexts,  and  the  Pope,  as  an  act  of  indulgence,  postponed  it  to 
the  eleventh  session  of  the  Council,  which  was  not  held  till  the 
19th  of  December,  1516.  Meanwhile  the  abolition  of  the  Prag- 
matic Sanction,  an  object  which  the  Court  of  Rome  pursued  with 
extraordinary  energy,  remained  in  suspense.  But  an  event 
occurred  ere  long  which  wonderfully  facilitated  the  desired 
arrangement.  Louis  XII.  expired  in  January,  1515,  and  was 
succeeded  by  Francis  I. 

It  was  after  the  splendid  triumph  of  the  French  arms  at 
Marignano  that  Leo  judged  it  advisable  to  negotiate  a  final 
treaty  of  reconciliation  with  the  Gallican  Church.  The  young 
monarch,  flushed  with  victory,  was  at  that  moment  in  a  position 
to  demand  advantageous  terms ;  and  it  was  plain  that  any 
agreement  must  be  of  the  nature  of  a  compromise.  Antoine 
Duprat,  Chancellor  of  France,  to  whom  Francis  entrusted  the 
management  of  this  delicate  business,  was  a  diplomatist  well 
capable  of  pressing  the  terms  of  a  bargain  in  a  sense  correspond- 
ing with  his  master's  interests ;  and,  knowing  that  the  paramount 
point  with  Rome  was  the  abrogation  of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction, 
he  exacted,  as  the  price  of  it,  a  boon  which  legalized  and  per- 
petuated the  predominance  of  the  Crown  in  directing  the 
administration  of  the  Church. 

The  celebrated  Concordat  of  Bologna  bears  date  the  18th  of 
August,  1516.*  Many  of  its  provisions  were  identical  with  those 
of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction,  for  which  it  was  substituted  ;  but 
there  were  some  conspicuous  exceptions.  The  most  important 
article  is  that  relating  to  the  right  of  nomination  to  bishoprics 
and  other  "  benefices  consistoriaux : "  this  was  transferred  in 
express  terms  from  the  capitular  bodies  to  the  Crown.  The  king 
was  to  present,  within  six  months  after  the  vacancy,  a  doctor  or 
licentiate  in  divinity  to  the  Pope,  who  was  thereupon  to  confirm 
the  appointment  and  confer  canonical  institution ; — a  veto  being 
thus  secured  to  the  Holy  See  upon  any  choice  which  did  not 


*  Labbe,  Condi.,  torn.  xiv.  p.  358;  Thoinassin,  II.  Lib.  i.  cap.  4;  Isaiiibcrt, 
Aitciennes  Lois  Franfaises,  torn.  xii.  p.  75. 


106 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


INTROD. 


satisfy  the  requirements  of  the  canons.*  The  Pope  was  still  to 
nominate  to  benefices  "  in  curia  vacantia ; "  and  it  was  further 
agreed  that  every  private  patron  having  from  ten  to  fifty  bene- 
fices in  his  gift  should  place  one  presentation  at  the  disposal  of 
the  Pope  for  the  time  being,  or  two,  if  the  number  exceeded 
fifty,  f  Papal  "reservations"  and  "  expective  graces"  were 
abolished.  The  right  of  University  graduates  to  preferment 
was  recognized,  and  their  privileges  considerably  extended.  $ 
Ecclesiastical  causes  were  to  be  decided  within  the  realm  by 
the  ordinary  tribunals,  or  by  commissioners  named  by  the  Pope 
in  the  case  of  "causae  majores"  statutably  reserved  to  his 
cognizance.§ 

But  the  omissions  from  the  Concordat  were  of  crucial  signifi- 
cance. Entire  silence  was  observed  with  respect  to  the  memo- 
rable decrees  of  Constance,  Basle,  and  Bourges,  which  had 
established  the  superiority  of  Councils  over  the  Pope.  No 
mention  was  made  of  the  annates,  which  the  Pragmatic  Sanction 
had  suppressed ;  ||  and  in  consequence  of  the  tacit  understanding 
between  the  contracting  parties  on  this  head,  the  claim  to 
that  impost  was  immediately  revived  by  the  Pope,  who  re- 
garded it  as  a  right  inherently  annexed  to  his  See.  "  Thus," 
as  Mezerai  remarks,  "  the  Pope  surrendered  to  the  king  a 
purely  spiritual  privilege,  and  obtained  in  return  a  purely 
secular  advantage."  H 

This  arbitrary  measure  excited  an  outcry  of  indignation 
throughout  France,  and  the  mandate  for  its  registration  was 


*  In  case  of  a  refusal  to  grant  the 
bulls  of  institution,  the  Pope  engaged 
to  specify  his  reasons.  This  power  was 
not  unfrequently  exercised,  and  became 
a  source  of  serious  difficulty. 

f  Titulus  vi.,  "  De  Mandatis  Apos- 
tolicis." 

J  They  were  to  be  entitled  to  the 
third  part  of  all  ecclesiastical  benefices. 
—Titulus  v.,  §  2,  "  De  Graduatis." 

§  "Exceptis  majoribus  in  jure  ex- 
presse  denominatis." — Titulus  x.,  "  De 
Causis." 

||  It  was  provided,  however  (Tit.  v., 
§  9)  that  a  return  should  be  made  of 
the  true  annual  value  of  all  benefices 
in  France  for  which  confirmation  was 
sought  at  Rome, — a  stipulation  which 
implied  that  the  annates  were  about  to 


be  claimed  afresh,  and  that  they  would 
be  assessed  to  their  full  amount. 

Tf  Mezerai,  Abr<?g<?  Chronol.,  torn.  ii. 
p.  904.  "Les  mieux  sensez  s'etonne- 
rent  grandement  que  ces  deux  Potentats 
eussent  fait  ce  troc  si  peu  scant  a  Fun 
et  a  1'autre;  que  le  Pape  se  fust  de- 
pouille'  du  spirituel  pour  le  confe'rer  au 
Roy,  et  que  sa  Majeste",  abandonnant 
le  temporel  de  son  etat,  permist  que  lea 
plus  clairs  deniers  de  son  royaume  se 
transportassent  a  Rome.  Par  ce  mesme 
moyen  le  Roy  consentit  1'abolition  de  la 
Pragmatique;  niais  les  bons  Francois 
s'y  opposerent  puissamment,  comme  a 
la  manifesto  ruino  de  PEgliseGallicane, 
et  a  la  pepiuiere  des  simonies  et  des 
confidences." 


INTBUD. 


RESISTANCE  TO  THE  CONCORDAT. 


107 


most  stubbornly  resisted  by  the  Parliament  of  Paris.  After  ten 
days  of  discussion,  the  magistrates  came  to  a  resolution  that  it 
would  be  contrary  to  their  duty  to  accept  the  new  ordinance ; 
they  appealed  against  it  to  "  the  Pope  better  informed,"  and  to 
the  next  General  Council  lawfully  assembled.*  Meanwhile 
they  declared  that  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  ought  to  be  observed 
more  strictly  than  ever.  If  the  king  was  absolutely  determined 
to  enforce  the  reception  of  the  Concordat,  they  begged  that  he 
would  cause  it  to  be  promulgated  in  the  same  way  as  in  the  case 
of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction,  namely,  by  a  lawfully  convened 
Council  of  the  Gallican  Church.  The  new  decree  was  combated 
in  like  manner  by  the  University  of  Paris.  That  body  posted 
notices  throughout  the  city  forbidding  all  booksellers  and 
printers  to  print  and  publish  it.  They  drew  up  an  elaborate 
memorial,  setting  forth  the  manifold  evils  which  had  arisen 
from  the  disuse  of  free  election;  tracing  to  that  source  the 
ignorance,  incompetence,  and  depraved  morals,  which  disgraced 
the  higher  clergy,  as  well  as  the  spoliation  of  the  National 
Church  by  the  inordinate  exactions  of  Home.  In  conclusion, 
the  University  appealed  to  the  Pope  "  better  informed,"  and  to 
a  future  legitimate  Council  freely  assembled.  The  act  of  appeal 
stated  that,  "  although  the  Pope  holds  his  authority  immediately 
from  God,  he  is  not  on  that  account  incapable  of  error ;  that  if 
he  should  command  anything  contrary  to  the  precepts  of  Divine 
law,  the  faithful  are  not  bound  to  obey  him ;  and  that  if  he  shall 
persist  in  attempting  to  enforce  submission,  the  only  remedy  is 
to  appeal  from  him  to  the  decision  of  the  Church  Universal — a 
right  which  none  can  gainsay,  since  it  is  founded  on  the  law  of 
God  and  that  of  nature."  f  Francis,  much  irritated,  issued  an 
edict  annulling  these  proceedings  as  seditious,  and  insisting  on 
the  immediate  acceptance  of  the  obnoxious  ordinance.  At 
first  the  command  was  disregarded ;  but  the  despotic  power  to 
which  the  monarchy  had  been  steadily  advancing  ever  since 
the  time  of  Philip  the  Fair  prevailed  in  the  end. 

In  the  eleventh  session  of  the  Lateran  Council  (December  19, 
1516),  Leo  X.  promulgated  the  bull  "Pastor  seternus,"f  by 
which  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  was  finally  abrogated  and  an- 


*  July    24,     1517.     Pinsson,    Hist. 
Prog,  et  Concord.,  p.  732. 
t  .DuPlessisd'Argeutrc,  Collect.  Judic. 


denovisErroribu8,toTn.i.p.357.  Pinsson, 
Hist.  Pragmat.  et  Concordat.,  p.  934. 
£  Labbc,  Concil,  torn.  xiv.  p.  309. 


108 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


IN TROD. 


nulled.  It  begins  with  a  pompous  eulogy  of  the  Christian 
virtue  of  obedience ;  after  which  it  recites  that  the  late  Pope 
Julius,  finding  that  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  ("  which  might  well 
be  called  the  depravation  of  the  kingdom  of  France  ")  was  still 
in  force,  to  the  peril  of  souls  and  the  detriment  of  the  Holy  See, 
had  caused  it  to  be  examined  by  a  Commission  of  Cardinals, 
and  had  cited  the  French  bishops,  chapters,  and  Parliaments,  to 
appear  as  parties  to  the  cause  at  Home.  The  Pope  goes  on 
to  state  that,  after  the  death  of  his  predecessor,  he  had  judged  it 
right  to  pursue  the  same  course,  and  had  summoned  the  parties 
interested  by  repeated  monitions ;  in  spite  of  which  no  one  had  yet 
appeared  to  allege  reasons  in  defence  of  the  measure  in  question. 
Under  these  circumstances  he  had  determined  to  abolish  it 
altogether,  after  the  example  of  Leo  the  Great,  who,  at  the 
Council  of  Chalcedon,  revoked  what  had  been  rashly  ordained 
by  the  second  Council  of  Ephesus  in  opposition  to  the  Catholic 
faith.  The  fact  that  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  had  been  au- 
thorized by  the  councils  of  Bourges  and  Basle  was  no  obstacle 
to  its  revocation ;  for  it  had  not  been  accepted  until  after 
the  translation  of  the  latter  Council  by  Eugenius  IV.,  which 
destroyed  its  validity ;  since  the  sovereign  Pontiff  has  plenary 
power  over  Councils,  to  convoke,  translate,  and  dissolve  them.* 
In  fine,  he  declares  that  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  has  no  authority 
whatever ;  he  cancels  all  the  decrees,  statutes,  and  regulations, 
contained  in  it ;  he  condemns  and  annuls  all  that  was  done  with 
respect  to  it  in  the  assembly  of  Bourges.  And  forasmuch  as  it 
is  necessary  to  salvation  that  all  Christians  should  be  subject  to 
the  Eoman  Pontiff,  according  to  Holy  Scripture,  the  Fathers, 
and  the  constitution  of  Boniface  VIII.,  "  Unam  sanctam,"  he 
therefore  renews  that  constitution,  without  prejudice  to  that  of 
Clement  V.,  beginning  "  Meruit,"  f  and  forbids  the  faithful, 


*  These  statements  are  painfully  dis- 
ingenuous. It  is  true  that  the  Prag- 
matic Sanction  was  not  enacted  till 
after  the  translation  of  the  Council  of 
Basle ;  but  the  decrees  of  that  Council, 
upon  which  the  Pragmatic  Sanction 
was  framed,  were  passed,  with  two  ex- 
ceptions, before  the  translation;  and 
since  Pope  Eugenius  distinctly  approved 
and  ratified  all  the  acts  of  the  Council 
up  to  the  date,  it  follows  that  all  the 
articles  of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction, 


except  two,  were  confirmed  by  the 
Apostolic  See,  and  possess  the  authority 
of  an  unquestioned  General  Council  of 
the  West.  As  to  the  power  of  the  Pope 
over  Councils,  which  this  bull  affirms 
to  rest  upon  canonical  legislation,  and 
the  confession  of  Councils  themselves, 
the  claim  is  manifestly  untenable,  inas- 
much as  it  is  bated  mainly  on  the  False 
Decretals. 

t  Extravag.  Commun.,  Lib.  v.  Tit.  vii. 
cap.   2,   "Ilex  Francise   et  reguicolse, 


IXTKOD. 


REGISTRATION  OF  THE  CONCORDAT. 


109 


clergy  and  laity,  regular  and  secular,  of  whatever  order,  rank,  or 
condition,  to  make  use  of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  for  the  future, 
or  to  decide  any  cause  in  conformity  with  its  provisions.  The 
penalty  denounced  was  the  greater  excommunication  and  de- 
privation for  ecclesiastics,  and  the  forfeiture  of  fiefs  and  all 
dignities  in  the  case  of  civilians.  Another  bull,  substituting  the 
Concordat  for  the  Pragmatic  Sanction,  was  read  in  the  same 
session. 

The  Parliament  of  Paris  persisted  in  its  opposition  until 
it  was  on  the  brink  of  an  open  rupture  with  the  sovereign. 
A  royal  message,  on  the  12th  of  March,  1517,*  warned  the 
magistrates  that,  if  the  new  edict  was  not  registered  and 
published  without  further  discussion  and  delay,  his  Majesty 
would  be  compelled  to  resort  to  extremities  which  would  give 
them  cause  for  regret,  t  It  was  now  felt  that  it  would  be  dan- 
gerous further  to  resist  the  king's  pleasure;  the  Parliament, 
therefore,  yielded  in  form ;  but  this  was  done  in  the  most 
reserved  and  qualified  terms  possible,  under  protest  that  it  was 
purely  an  act  of  submission  to  the  crown,  J  and  that  the  Par- 
liament by  no  means  designed  thereby  to  authorize  or  approve 
of  the  Concordat.  The  magistrates  also  declared  that  they 
would  continue  to  adjudicate  appeals  in  ecclesiastical  matters  in 
accordance  with  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  as  heretofore.§ 

Nor  did  this  forced  surrender  terminate  the  struggle.  The 
execution  of  the  Concordat  was  vigorously  contested  for  years 
afterwards.  Cathedral  and  monastic  chapters  proceeded  to  elect 
bishops  and  abbots  under  the  provisions  of  the  Pragmatic  Sanc- 
tion ;  and  every  such  case  became  a  fresh  source  of  exasperation 
between  the  contending  powers.  The  disputed  elections  were 
referred  for  arbitration,  according  to  the  views  and  feelings  of 
the  parties  interested,  sometimes  to  the  Council  of  State,  some- 


per  Extravagantem  Unam  Sanctam  non 
amplius  subjiciuntur  Ecclesise  Ro- 
roanse,  quam  prius  erant." 

*  I.  e.  1518,  according  to  the  present 
mode  of  reckoning.  The  legal  year 
began  at  that  time  at  Easter. 

t  Pinsson,  Hist.  Pragmat.  at  Con- 
cordat., p.  929. 

J  The  edict,  when  registered,  was 
endorsed  as  follows :  "  Lecta,  publicata, 
t-t  registrata,  ex  ordinatione  et  prse- 


cepto  Domini  nostri  Regis,  reiteratis 
vicibus  fticto,  in  prsesentia  Domini  de 
Tremoillia,  primi  Cambellani  dicti  Dom. 
nostri  Regis,  ad  hoc  per  eum  specialiter 
missi.  Parish's  in  Parliamento,  22°  die 
Marti  i  ann.  Dom.  1517.'' 

§  Pinsson,  Hist.  Pragmat.  et  Concord., 
p.  734;  Crevier,  Hist,  de  I' Univ.  de 
Paris,  torn.  v.  p.  Ill ;  Longueval,  Hist, 
de  I'Eglise  Gallic.,  torn.  xxii.  p.  71. 


110  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  INTBOD. 

times  to  the  Parliament  of  Paris.  Conflicting  judgments  were 
pronounced  ;  the  Royal  Council  decided  for  the  royal  nominee ; 
the  Parliament  ruled  that  the  individual  on  whom  the  choice  of 
the  chapter  had  fallen  was  duly  elected.  But  the  Parliament, 
though  clamouring  loudly  for  the  "  Gallican  liberties,"  and 
making  a  gallant  stand  for  national  independence  as  against  the 
usurpations  of  Rome,  was  unable  to  maintain  its  ground  against 
the  overpowering  despotism  of  the  Crown.  The  monarchical 
authority  ultimately  achieved  a  complete  triumph.  In  1527  a 
peremptory  royal  ordinance  prohibited  the  courts  of  Parliament 
from  taking  further  cognisance  of  causes  affecting  elections  to 
consistorial  benefices  and  conventual  priories ;  and  all  such  mat- 
ters were  transferred  to  the  sole  jurisdiction  of  the  Council  of 
State.*  After  this  the  agitation  against  the  Concordat  gradually 
subsided. 

But  although,  in  virtue  of  its  compulsory  registration  by  the 
Parliament,  the  Concordat  became  part  of  the  law  of  the  land, 
it  is  certain  that  the  Gallican  Church  never  accepted  this 
flagrant  invasion  of  its  liberties.  On  the  contrary,  the  clergy 
lost  no  opportunity  of  protesting  against  it,  and  petitioned  the 
crown  unceasingly  for  the  restoration  of  freedom  of  election. 
In  their  assembly  at  Melun  in  1579  they  adopted  a  "  remon- 
strance "  to  Henry  III.,  demanding  this  privilege  as  belonging 
to  the  Church  by  Divine  right.  "  It  would  have  been  for  the 
interest  of  the  Pope  and  of  the  kings  of  France,"  they  argued, 
"if  the  Concordat  had  never  come  to  pass.  Since  that  time 
the  Church  of  France  has  declined ;  heresy  made  its  appear- 
ance at  the  same  moment,  and  has  gained  ground  to  the  extent 
which  we  now  witness.  The  condition  of  the  Church  while  the 
elections  were  in  force,  as  compared  with  that  which  has  resulted 
from  the  royal  nominations,  shows  that  it  was  vitally  important 
to  maintain  the  primitive  rule ;  and  the  foresight  of  our  Par- 
liament has  thus  been  fully  vindicated,  in  its  refusal  to  approve 
the  abolition  of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction;  \vhich  law  it  justly 
regarded  as  the  main  safeguard  against  the  abuses  which  have 
since  been  prevalent."!  Similar  representations  were  made  to 
the  throne  by  the  synod  of  1588,  when  the  Bishop  of  S.  Brieux 


*  Pinsson,  Hist.  Pragmai.  et  Concord.,  p.  751. 
t  Mtfmoires  du  Clerggde  France,  torn.  xiii.  p.  40. 


INTROD. 


PRACTICAL  FRUITS  OF  THE  CONCORDAT. 


Ill 


reminded  his  Majesty  that  his  grandfather,  Francis  I.,  when 
lying  on  his  death-bed,  had  acknowledged  to  his  son,  Henry  II., 
that  "there  was  nothing  which  weighed  so  heavily  upon  his 
conscience  as  the  measure  by  which  he  had  suppressed  the 
free  elections,  and  assumed  the  nomination  to  cathedrals  and 
monasteries."* 

The  practical  working  of  the  Concordat  seems  to  have  been, 
in  some  respects,  preferable  to  that  of  the  system  of  capitular 
election,  which  had  engendered  scandalous  abuses.  But  it 
was  attended  with  one  signal  disadvantage.  Under  the  new 
order  of  things  both  those  who  attained  and  those  who  aspired 
to  the  high  places  of  the  Church  became,  almost  inevitably, 
courtiers;  their  spiritual  character  was  in  perpetual  danger 
of  being  merged  in  that  of  temporal  grandees  and  political 
functionaries.  The  bishops  were  unquestionably  more  national 
in  their  views  and  tendencies  under  the  modern  arrangement 
— more  vigilant  in  resisting  the  aggressions  and  encroach- 
ments of  the  Papacy;  but,  in  the  same  proportion,  they  were 
less  capable  of  opposing  any  effectual  barrier  to  the  strides  by 
which  the  monarchy  was  marching  towards  absolute  dominion. 
They  dared  not  assume  the  attitude  of  fearless  champions  of  the 
constitutional  rights  of  their  order,  and  of  the  Divine  economy 
of  the  Church;  they  contracted  a  tone  of  servile  dependence, 
unqualified  admiration,  and  fulsome  flattery,  in  their  communi- 
cations with  the  sovereign.  In  addition  to  this,  the  "  haute 
noblesse  "  were  enabled,  by  means  of  the  new  system,  to  esta- 
blish almost  a  monopoly  of  the  richer  Church  preferments. 
Bishoprics  and  abbacies  became  practically  hereditary  in  certain 
great  families,  and  were  regarded  as  the  ordinary  provision  for 
younger  sons.  This  grave  abuse  was  palpably  fostered  by  the 
article  of  the  Concordat  which  declared  princes  of  the  blood 
royal  and  persons  of  noble  birth  eligible  for  preferment  without 
being  graduates  of  the  Universities.!  A  race  of  dignitaries  was 
thus  created  who  rarely  owed  their  promotion  to  any  claims  on 
the  score  of  theological  attainment  or  pastoral  efficiency. 

Although  it  would  be  difficult  to  imagine  anything  more 
diametrically  opposed  than  the  Concordat  to  the  primitive  insti- 


*  Memoires  du  Clerge  de  France,  torn, 
xiii.  p.  134. 
t  Textus  Concordatorum,  Titulus  Hi., 


"  De  regia  ad  Prselaturas  nominatione 
facienda."  Cf.  Thomassin,  Vet.  et  Nov. 
Eccles.  Discip.,  II.  Lib.  ii.  c.  40. 


112 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


INTEOD. 


tutions  of  the  Church,  the  circumstances  under  which  it  was 
obtained  were  such  that  it  might  be  colourably  described  as 
a  national  protest  against  certain  usurpations  and  exactions 
hitherto  practised  by  the  court  of  Kome.  This  operated,  in 
great  measure,  as  a  veil  to  its  true  character.  So  keen  was 
the  satisfaction  caused  by  the  removal  of  some  of  the  heaviest 
burdens  under  which  the  Church  had  groaned  for  centuries 
through  spiritual  misgovernment,  that  the  immense  increase  of 
power  which  was  thrown  at  the  same  time  into  the  hands  of  the 
civil  ruler  was  comparatively  overlooked.  Thus  the  Concordat 
was  complacently  quoted  by  its  admirers  as  establishing  the 
"  Gallican  liberties ; "  whereas  it  was,  in  fact,  the  most  formid- 
able blow  that  had  yet  been  dealt  towards  their  extinction.* 
The  interests  which  it  really  served  were  those  of  modern 
pseudo-Gallicanism ; — a  system  of  which  it  is  no  exaggeration 
to  say  that  it  proved  ruinous  to  the  National  Church  of 
France.f 


*  "Quo  tempore  juris  communis  et 
libertatis  ecclesiastic®  regulse  funditus 
abrogatse  sunt,  Pragmaticse  Sanctionis 
et  sacrarum  electionum  antiquatione." 
— Edm.  Richer,  Defens.  Lib.  de  Eccles. 


et  Polit.  Potest.,  Lib.  v.  cap.  iv. 

f  The  Concordat  of  Francis  I.  is 
ably  analysed  in  the  work  of  the  Abbe 
de  JPradt,  Les  Quatre  Concordats,  torn.  i. 
chap,  xv.,  Paris,  1818. 


THE  GALLICAN  CHUECH 

,  FROM  THE  CONCORDAT  OF  BOLOGNA  TO  THE  REVOLUTION. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  Concordat  of  Bologna  was  substantially  a  triumph  of  the 
absolutist  principle,  as  represented  by  the  King  and  the  Pope, 
over  the  constitutional,  as  embodied  in  the  liberties  of  the  Gal- 
lican  Church.  The  Pope  arbitrarily  conferred  upon  the  Crown 
a  prerogative  which  was  not  his  to  bestow,  obtaining  in  exchange 
the  formal  repeal  of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  of  Bourges,  and,  by 
consequence,  a  tacit  repudiation  of  the  odious  Councils  of  Con- 
stance and  Basle.  For  the  Crown  the  bargain  was  a  cheap  one ; 
since  the  concession  thus  purchased  not  only  invested  it  with 
the  vast  patronage  of  an  enormously  wealthy  establishment,  but 
supplied,  withal,  a  convenient  instrument  for  controlling  the 
spirit  of  ecclesiastical  independence. 

Yet  it  was  a  dangerous  experiment  on  both  sides.  For  days 
of  trial  were  at  hand.  Storms  were  gathering  on  the  horizon, 
which  threatened  the  stability  of  all  principles  and  all  institu- 
tions belonging  to  the  medieval  structure  of  society ;  and, 
among  the  rest,  the  fidelity  of  the  Church  of  France  to  her 
natural  protectors,  who  had  so  ungenerously  leagued  together 
to  betray  her  liberties,  was  about  to  be  rudely  tested.  The 
Concordat  synchronized  with  the  commencement  of  the  (so-called) 
Reformation. 

I  do  not  purpose  to  enter  upon  a  regularly  detailed  narrative 
of  the  transactions  of  this  tempestuous  period — a  period  which 
exhibited  in  France  scenes  of  internecine  strife,  fanatical  extra- 
vagance, and  remorseless  cruelty,  unparalleled  elsewhere  in 
Europe.  These  are  amply  described  in  the  contemporary 
chronicles,  and  also  by  the  various  modern  writers  who  have 
treated  of  the  rise  and  progress  of  French  Protestantism.  I 
shall  content  myself  with  tracing  the  general  line  of  action 
pursued  by  the  National  Church  during  these  perplexing  times, 

VOL.  i.  I 


114.  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  I. 

including  some  account  of  the  proceedings  of  its  representatives 
at  the  eventful  deliberations  of  the  Council  of  Trent. 

The  outcry  for  ecclesiastical  reform,  which  led  eventually  to 
the  terrible  conflicts  and  convulsions  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
was  twofold ; — arising  partly  from  inveterate  abuses  in  the  prac- 
tical administration  of  the  Church,  and  partly  from  the  alleged 
corruption  of  primitive  doctrine.  With  regard  to  the  former 
class  of  grievances,  it  was  denied  by  none  that  the  condition  of 
the  Church  afforded  just  ground  for  reproach :  this  was  a  patent 
fact,  frankly  acknowledged  by  all  right-minded  Catholics.  All 
the  world  was  well  aware  that  the  higher  Church  appointments 
were  made  from  motives  of  political  ambition,  Court  favouritism, 
family  interest,  or  sordid  avarice,  rather  than  from  considerations 
of  real  merit  and  the  public  advantage.  The  superior  clergy 
were  notoriously  pluralists — bishoprics  and  abbeys  being  granted 
in  commendam  to  such  an  extent  that  residence,  or  any  approach 
to  efficient  pastoral  supervision,  was  simply  impossible.  Simony 
was  systematically  practised :  even  the  Court,  the  Ministers  of 
State,  the  proudest  nobles,  were  no  strangers  to  this  shameful 
traffic.  Kich  preferments  were  lavished  upon  persons  manifestly 
incapable  of  holding  them — upon  laymen,  married  men,  military 
officers,  young  children,  even  upon  females.  These  anomalous  in- 
cumbents enjoyed  the  revenues,  while  the  duties  were  abandoned 
to  miserably-paid  substitutes,  styled  "  confidentiaires  "  or  "  custo- 
dinos."  An  annalist  of  the  time  assures  us  that  towards  the  middle 
of  the  century  the  greater  part  of  the  benefices  in  France  were 
in  the  hands  of  persons  disqualified  according  to  the  Canons.* 

It  was  maintained,  however,  by  the  clergy,  that  the  true 
remedy  for  these  monstrous  evils  was  perfectly  clear,  and  that  it 
lay  with  the  State  to  apply  that  remedy.  Let  the  Crown  con- 
sent to  relinquish  the  privilege  it  had  acquired  by  the  Concordat, 
and  restore  the  primitive  usage  of  free  election.  In  that  case, 
they  were  convinced  that  most  of  the  prevalent  disorders  would 
be  effectually  checked,  and  would  ere  long  disappear.  The 
Episcopate,  if  the  elective  franchise  were  once  more  entrusted 
to  the  clergy,  would  consist  of  men  distinguished  by  all  the 
qualifications  for  their  exalted  office.  They  would  reside  among 
their  flocks ;  they  would  enforce  the  wholesome  discipline  en- 


*  Pierre  de  1'Estoile,  Registre-Journal  de  Henri  III. 


CHAP.  I.  REFORMING  MOVEMENT.  115 

joined  by  the  Councils;  they  would  diligently  instruct  the 
young  and  ignorant ;  they  would  carefully  expound  the  meaning 
of  the  Church's  venerable  ceremonial ;  they  would  vindicate  the 
authority  of  that  pure  Catholic  tradition  which  had  come  down 
from  inspired  Apostles.  This  was  the  only  sure  way  to  stem 
the  rising  tide  of  irreverent  innovation,  to  extirpate  heresy,  and 
to  restore  the  unity  of  Christendom. 

The  clergy  pressed  these  views  on  the  attention  of  the  Govern- 
ment with  unwearied  earnestness.*  And,  although  they  were 
perhaps  over-sanguine  in  imagining  that  the  re-establishment  of 
free  election  would  act  as  a  panacea  for  all  the  spiritual  distem- 
pers of  the  age,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  their  demand  was 
just,  and  their  reasoning  weighty. 

The  Crown,  however,  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  their  representa- 
tions, and  obstinately  declined  to  surrender  its  prerogative  of 
patronage.  From  the  secular  point  of  view,  there  was  no  ground 
for  making  any  alteration  in  the  existing  relations  between 
Church  and  State. 

But  there  was  a  second  branch  of  the  reforming  movement, 
namely,  that  which  tended  towards  doctrinal  changes,  under  the 
plea  that  the  Church  had  departed  widely,  in  many  essential 
particulars,  from  the  teaching  of  Holy  Scripture  and  of  the 
earliest  ages.  This  the  Gallican  clergy  steadily  discountenanced ; 
upholding,  with  unshaken  consistency,  the  system  of  belief  which 
had  prevailed  for  centuries  throughout  the  Latin  obedience.  It 
is  true  that  there  were  some  members  of  the  Episcopate  who 
sympathized  with  the  Lutheran  opinions  to  a  certain  extent. 
Such  were,  during  the  earlier  stage  of  the  agitation,  Guillaume 
Briponnet  Bishop  of  Meaux,  Jacques  Spifame  Bishop  of 
Nevers,  Pelissier  Bishop  of  Maguelonne,  Etienne  Poncher 
Bishop  of  Paris,  afterwards  Archbishop  of  Sens ;  and,  at  a  later 
period,  Cardinal  de  Chatillon  Bishop  of  Beauvais,  St.  Bom  am 
Archbishop  of  Aix,  Montluc  Bishop  of  Valence,  Guillard.  of 
Chartres,  and  Barbanpon  of  Pamiers.  But  little  impression 
was  made  upon  the  minds  of  the  great  body  of  the  clergy. 
In  proportion  as  it  became  clear  that  the  Protestant  leaders 
aimed  at  nothing  short  of  religious  revolution — that  they  were 
prepared  to  incur  all  the  risks  of  permanent  divorce  from 


*  See  the  Mfmoires  du  Clergc  de  France,  torn.  ii.  p.  241  et  seqq. 

i  2 


116 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  I. 


the  visible  centre  of  Catholic  unity — the  French  Church  rallied 
round  the  throne  of  St.  Peter  with  intense  and  indomitable  zeal. 
The  venerable  Sorbonne — that  "  perpetual  Gallican  Council," 
as  it  has  been  styled* — displayed  a  vigilance  which  nothing 
could  elude,  and  uttered,  with  no  uncertain  sound,  its  judgments 
on  the  various  phases  of  heterodox  speculation  as  they  appeared. 
Luther,  in  the  course  of  his  conferences  with  Cardinal  Cajetan, 
had  spoken  with  great  respect  of  the  Theological  Faculty  of 
Paris,  and  professed  himself  willing  to  submit  his  doctrine  to  its 
verdict.  The  divines  accordingly  examined  his  various  published 
works,  and  in  a  session  on  the  13th  of  April,  1521,  condemned  a 
series  of  more  than  one  hundred  propositions  extracted  from 
them,  as  "  heretical,  schismatical,  impious,  and  blasphemous."  t 
They  pointed  out,  in  the  preface  to  this  sentence,  that 
Lutheranism,  in  many  of  its  characteristic  features,  was  but  a 
specious  reproduction  of  errors  long  since  proscribed  and  ex- 
ploded. Like  the  Montanists,  Luther  rejected  the  authority  of 
the  Church ;  like  the  Manicheans,  he  denied  the  freedom  of  the 
will ;  he  coincided  with  the  Hussites  in  disparaging  the  Sacra- 
ment of  Penance — with  the  Wickliffites  in  repudiating  Confession 
— with  the  Catharini,  the  Waldenses,  the  Bohemians,  in  attack- 
ing the  privileges  of  the  clergy,  railing  against  the  ecclesiastical 
Courts,  and  cavilling  at  counsels  of  evangelical  perfection.  He 
had  the  audacity  to  prefer  his  own  judgment  to  that  of  the  most 
profoundly  learned  doctors  of  antiquity,  and  even  to  the  decrees 
of  (Ecumenical  Councils ; — as  if  the  Almighty  had  revealed  the 
way  of  salvation  exclusively  to  Martin  Luther,  and  had  left  His 
Church  for  fifteen  centuries  in  ignorance  of  essential  truth. 
|  Proceeding  to  enumerate  the  tenets  to  which  the  censure 
|  applied,  the  Sorbonne  placed  in  the  front  rank  that  favourite 
I  sophism  of  the  Wittemburg  professor,  that  inasmuch  as  all 

i3  Christians  are  (in  one  sense)  priests,  the  power  of  the  Keys 
belongs  to  all  in  common,  and  that  they  all  possess  the  same 
s  authority   with  regard  to  preaching  God's  Word  and  admi- 
nistering the  Sacraments.    Among  other  sentiments  reprehended 
!  are  the  following : — That  the  faith  of  the  recipient  constitutes 
]  the  efficacy  of  sacraments.     That  absolution  is  effectual,  not  by 


*  "  Le  coiicile  perpetuel  des  Gaules, 
1'Areopage  de  1  Eglisc,  et  le  flambeau 
de  la  foi." — Mezerai,  Abrtg€  Clironolog, 


t  Duplessis  d'Argentre,  CoUectio  Ju- 
diciorum  de  novis  Erroribus,  torn.  i.  p. 
3C5. 


A.D.1521.  CONDEMNATION  OF  LUTHERANISM.  117 

virtue  of  what  is  done  by  the  priest,  but  by  virtue  of  the  peni-  j 
tent's  believing  that  he  is  pardoned.     That  moral  virtues  and 
speculative  sciences  are  not  truly  virtues  and  sciences,  but  rather 
sins  and  errors.     That  the  just  man  sins  even  in  his  good  works, 
the  best  possible  action  being  nevertheless  a  venial  sin.     That 
it  is  mistaken  to  say  that  we  know  not  whether  we  are  in  a  state 
of  grace ;  the  believer  ought  never  to  be  in  doubt  whether  his 
works  are  acceptable  to  God ;  for  whosoever  thus  doubts  commits  I 
sin,  and  all  his  efforts  are  vain  and  worthless.     That  it  is  wrong  \ 
to  say  that  God  has  laid  upon  us  no  commands  which  are  im-  | 
possible,  since  no  man,  however  holy,  has  ever  kept  the  last  two  J 
commandments  of  the  Decalogue ;   notwithstanding  which  we  I 
are  guilty  of  sin  in  not  fulfilling  them.     That  the  Church  has  [• 
suffered  infinite  damage  for  hundreds  of  years  past  through  j 
the  corruption  of  Holy  Scripture  by  its  doctors.    That  the  intro-  j 
duction  of  Scholastic  theology  has  led  to  the  abandonment  of  \ 
the  religion  of  the  cross.     That  many  opinions  condemned  by  | 
Councils,  for  instance,  many  of  those  held  by  John  Huss  and 
the  Bohemians,  are  orthodox,  and  cannot  be  lawfully  censured. 
That  neither  Pope  nor  Bishop,  nor  any  human  authority,  can 
enact  the  smallest  ordinance  as  binding  upon  the  faithful  unless  ? 
they  consent  to  it;  and  that  whatever  has  been  otherwise  ordained  ! 
is  simply  tyrannical. 

Not  content  with  this  vigorous  demonstration  against  Luther, 
the  Parisian  doctors,  a  few  years  later,  passed  a  severe  censure 
on  the  '  Colloquies '  of  the  great  Erasmus ; — a  work  in  which  the 
author,  without  advancing  statements  which  could  be  taxed  with 
formal  heresy,  had  criticised,  in  a  style  of  trenchant  satire,  some 
of  the  most  venerated  institutions  of  the  Church.  Erasmus  was 
denounced  by  the  Syndic  of  the  Faculty,  Noel  Beda,  a  man  of 
fervent  and  apparently  intemperate  zeal.  A  sharp  controversy 
ensued,  in  which  Erasmus  defended  himself  with  remarkable 
ingenuity,  and,  while  avowing  himself  an  advocate  of  reforma- 
tion", at  the  same  time  vindicated  his  character  as  an  attached 
and  dutiful  son  of  the  Church.  He  concluded  by  appealing  for 
protection  to  Francis  I.  That  monarch,  whose  generous  patronage 
of  men  of  letters  was  one  of  his  most  estimable  qualities,  inter- 
posed at  once,  in  the  arbitrary  fashion  of  the  time,  and  ordered 
the  Parliament  to  suppress  the  writings  of  Beda.  But  the 
Sorbonne,  undeterred  by  this  exhibition  of  royal  partisanship, 


118  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  I. 

pursued  their  investigation  of  the  case,  and  in  due  course  pro- 
nounced sentence  upon  thirty-two  extracts  of  a  heterodox  ten- 
dency from  different  works  of  Erasmus.*  These  related  chiefly 
to  matters  connected  with  the  disciplinary  system  of  the  Church  ; 
— to  oaths,  vows,  celibacy,  divorce,  fasting,  the  observance  of 
festivals,  and  other  ceremonial  usages.  Francis  testified  his 
displeasure  with  the  Faculty  for  their  boldness  on  this  occasion 
by  giving  orders  that  a  new  edition  of  24,000  copies  of  the 
'  Colloquies '  should  immediately  be  printed  at  Paris. 

Nor  did  the  Gallican  Church  fail  to  declare  itself  against  the 
Lutheran  innovations  by  the  more  authoritative  method  of 
synodical  decision.  Six  Provincial  Councils  were  held  for  this 
purpose  in  one  year,  1527-8,  at  Lyons,  Paris,  Bourges,  Keims, 
Tours,  and  Eouen.  Of  these  the  most  celebrated  is  the  Council 
of  the  province  of  Sens,  which  met  at  Paris  on  the  3rd  of 
February,  1527,  and  sat  till  the  following  October,  1528. 
The  Metropolitan,  Cardinal  Du  Prat,  Archbishop  of  Sens  and 
Chancellor  of  France,  presided,  and  was  attended  by  six  of  his 
suffragans,  the  Bishops  of  Paris,  Chartres,Meaux,  Auxerre,Troyes, 
and  Nevers,  with  the  vicar-general  of  the  Bishop  of  Orleans, 
and  a  numerous  assemblage  of  the  clergy  of  the  province.f 

Sixteen  decrees  or  canons  (deereta  fidei)  were  promulgated 
by  this  Synod,  enunciating  the  Catholic  faith  with  reference  to 
the  principal  points  controverted  by  the  Protestants.  These 
affirm,  in  very  precise  and  stringent  terms,  the  unity  and  the 
infallibility  of  the  Church ;  that  there  is  no  covenanted  salvation 
beyond  its  pale ;  that  it  is  a  visible  body, — the  Lutheran  notion 
of  an  invisible  Church  being  "  not  only  heretical,  but  the  very 
well-spring  of  all  heresies ; "  that  it  is  represented  by  G-eneral 
Councils,  which  have  the  power  of  deciding  all  questions  affecting 
the  purity  of  the  faith,  the  extirpation  of  heresy,  the  reformation 
of  the  Church,  and  the  correction  of  manners ;  and  that  those 
who  obstinately  resist  them  must  be  accounted  enemies  to  the 
faith.  The  synod  next  asserts  the  authority  of  the  Church  in 
fixing  the  canon  and  determining  the  true  sense  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture ;  and  declares  that  those  who  despise  the  guidance  of  the 
orthodox  Fathers  to  follow  that  of  their  own  private  understand- 


*  Du  Boulai,  Hist,  de  V Univ.  de  Paris,  torn.  vi.   D'Argentre,  Collect.  Judiciorum. 
t  Labbe,  Condi.,  torn.  xiv.  p.  444  et  eeqq. 


A.D.  1527-8.  PROVINCIAL  COUNCIL  OF  SENS.  119 

ing  are  to  be  classed  with  schismatics  and  heretics.  Further,  it 
establishes  the  necessity  and  validity  of  Catholic  tradition,  and 
condemns  those  who  reject  a  doctrine  or  observance  under  the 
pretext  that  it  is  not  explicitly  laid  down  in  Holy  Writ.  The 
Canon  on  the  Sacraments  (Decret.  10)  defines  their  number, 
seven,  and  explains  in  what  manner  each  of  them  is  a  true 
instrument  or  vehicle  of  Divine  grace.  A  separate  article 
teaches  that,  in  the  Mass,  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ  are 
truly  offered  by  the  priest  as  the  proper  and  peculiar  sacrifice 
of  the  new  law.  The  15th  decree  maintains  the  real  freedom  of 
man's  will,  yet  without  excluding  thereby  the  action  of  Divine 
grace.  The  human  will,  being  assisted  by  the  secret  inspiration 
of  prevenient  grace,*  draws  nigh  to  God,  and  prepares  itself  for 
that  sanctifying  grace  by  which  it  is  at  length  accepted  unto  life 
eternal.  It  is  true  that  God  draws  us  towards  Himself,  but  not 
by  constraint ;  it  is  true  that  He  predestines,  elects,  and  calls 
us,  but  He  glorifies  those  only  who,  being  rooted  in  faith  and 
charity,  have  "  made  their  calling  and  election  sure  "  by  good 
works.  The  16th  and  last  dogmatic  decree  affirms  that  faith  is 
then  only  effectual  to  salvation  when  it  "  worketh  by  love ; " 
since  the  righteous  will  be  accepted  at  the  last  day,  not  because 
they  have  believed,  but  because  they  have  abounded  in  good 
works.  "  It  is  not,  therefore,  faith  alone  that  justifies,  but  rather 
charity ;  and  good  works  not  only  are  not  sins,  but  in  adults  are 
necessary  to  salvation,  and  may  in  that  respect  be  considered 
meritorious."  f 

The  decrees  are  followed  by  a  catalogue  of  the  various  errors 
ventilated  by  the  heretics  of  the  day,  in  opposition  to  the  fore- 
going doctrines  of  the  Church.  The  acts  of  the  Council  conclude 
with  an  earnest  exhortation  to  the  princes  of  Christendom  to 
labour  for  the  extermination  of  heretics.  "  If  they  would  consult 
their  own  safety — if  they  desired  to  maintain  intact  the  rights 
of  their  own  sovereignty — if  they  would  preserve  the  nations 
subject  to  them  in  peace  and  tranquillity — let  them  protect  the 
Catholic  faith  with  a  strong  arm,  and  manfully  subdue  (debellare) 
its  enemies." 

Thus    distinctly  and  decisively   did  the  Gallican  Church 

*  "  Misericordise  prsevenientis  auxilio  suffulta,  et  interiori  quodam  et  occulto 
secretions  inspirationis  affiatu  contacta." 

t  "  Eatenus  adultis  ad  ealutem  necessaria,  ut  meriti  quoque  rationem  non 
respuant." 


120  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  I. 

express  her  mind  on  the  eve  of  the  great  battle  between  the 
prescriptive  authority  of  the  Past  and  the  new-fledged  independ- 
ence of  thought  engendered  by  the  Reformation.  The  reader  will 
not  fail  to  observe  that,  in  the  proceedings  of  this  important 
Synod,  while  language  of  the  most  unqualified  kind  is  employed 
to  set  forth  the  supreme  jurisdiction  of  the  Church  Catholic, 
and  of  General  Councils  as  its  representatives,  no  mention  is  to 
be  found  of  the  dogma  of  the  absolute  supremacy,  much  less 
of  the  personal  infallibility,  of  the  Pope.  The  Ultramontane 
theory  of  Church  government — enunciated  as  it  had  been  with 
the  utmost  technical  precision  by  Cardinals  Torquemada  and 
Cajetan — was  professed  at  this  time,  to  its  full  extent,  by  the 
Roman  Curia  and  its  accredited  divines ;  and  it  is  true,  more- 
over, that  since  the  last  Lateran  Council  a  certain  reaction  had 
set  in  against  the  limitations  attempted  to  be  imposed  on  the 
Pontifical  authority  by  the  Councils  of  Constance,  Basle,  and 
Bourges.  Nevertheless,  the  principles  of  Gerson  and  D'Ailly 
— representing,  as  they  did  in  the  main,  those  of  the  primitive 
undivided  Church  —  were  still  predominant  in  France.  By 
opposing  to  the  innovators  that  authority  which,  beyond  all 
question,  belongs  to  the  collective  Episcopate  (since  that  body 
occupies  by  succession  the  place  of  the  Apostles  *),  the  Gallican 
prelates  took  their  stand  on  a  vantage-ground  from  which 
nothing  could  dislodge  them.  Those  who  found  it  necessary  to 
defy  the  consentient  tradition  of  the  whole  Catholic  world  con- 
fessed thereby  the  untenableness  of  their  own  position ;  and  it 
is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that,  ere  long,  they  pursued  such  per- 
verse reasonings  to  their  logical  conclusion,  and  openly  seceded 
from  the  visible  communion  of  the  Church. 

The  project  of  a  General  Council  of  the  West,  for  the  settle- 
ment of  the  momentous  questions  at  issue  between  the  Church 
and  the  Protestants,  was  agitated  for  many  years,  as  is  well 
known,  before  it  was  found  possible  to  carry  it  into  execution. 
The  idea  was  originally  propounded  by  the  Lutherans  of  Ger- 
many. It  was  formally  sanctioned  by  the  Diet  of  Spires  in 
1529,  and  it  was  the  theme  of  lengthened  consultations  between 
Charles  V.  and  Pope  Clement  VII.  when  they  met  at  Bologna 


*  "  Apud  noa  Apostolorum  locum  Episcopi  tenent."    S.  Jerome,  Epist.  xxvii. 
ad  Marcellam.    Opp.  torn.  iv.  Pt.  II.  p.  65. 


A.D.  1530. 


PROJECT  OF  A  GENERAL  COUNCIL. 


121 


in  the  following  year.  Personally,  Clement  was  opposed  to  the 
holding  of  a  Council,  for  reasons  which  he  fully  explained  in  a 
letter  to  the  Emperor,  preserved  by  Martin  Du  Bellay.*  He 
was  not  in  a  position,  however,  to  resist  the  repeated  and  urgent 
demands  of  Charles;  and,  after  much  hesitation,  he  signified 
a  reluctant  consent  upon  certain  conditions.  These  were,  that 
the  place  of  meeting  should  be  on  the  Italian  side  of  the  Alps ; 
that  those  who  attended  the  Council  should  engage  beforehand 
to  submit  to  its  decrees ;  and  that,  in  the  mean  time,  no  in- 
novation should  be  allowed  in  Germany  with  regard  to  points 
of  controverted  doctrine.f  A  nuncio  was  now  despatched  to 
bespeak  the  co-operation  of  the  King  of  France  in  the  design, 
which  was  readily  promised  ;  and  Francis  appealed  accordingly 
to  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  and  other  Protestant  princes  with 
whom  he  was  in  alliance,  to  accept  the  Council  on  the  proffered 
terms,  as  the  only  chance  remaining  for  the  restoration  of 
religious  unity.  But  the  Protestants  declined  these  overtures ; 
or  rather,  they  insisted,  as  an  indispensable  condition  of  their 
adhesion,  that  the  Council  should  be  held  in  Germany ;  adding, 
moreover,  other  stipulations  which  the  Pope  pronounced  inad- 
missible. And,  in  truth,  it  must  be  confessed  that  matters  had 
by  this  time  reached  such  a  point  that  the  scheme  of  recon- 
ciling the  Eeformers  to  the  Church  by  the  expedient  of  a 
Council  was  simply  chimerical.  It  is  true  that  Luther  and  his 
friends  had  demanded  that  mode  of  arbitration  in  the  early 
days  of  the  movement ;  but  at  that  date  they  had  not  taken 
the  decisive  steps  which  placed  them  in  open  antagonism  to 
the  Church.  By  their  subsequent  proceedings,  in  separating 
from  the  Apostolically-descended  hierarchy,  and  inventing  a 
novel  form  of  ministry  unsanctioned  by  a  valid  succession,  they 
rejected  the  essential  principles  upon  which  alone  the  action 
of  a  Council  is  legitimately  based.  Lutheran  and  Calvinist 
sectaries  could  not  well  be  admitted  to  sit  and  vote  in  synod 
on  equal  terms  with  Catholic  prelates ;  and  even  if  this  difficulty 
could  have  been  overcome,  there  was  little  or  no  prospect  of  a 
satisfactory  result,  inasmuch  as  the  recusants  did  not  acknow- 
ledge the  supreme  authority  of  General  Councils;  whatever 


*  Mtfmoires  de  M.  Du  Bellay,  Liv. 
iv. 

t  Fra  Paolo,  Hist,  du  C.  de  Trente, 


Liv.  i.  §  47  (Edit.  Courayer).    Ellies- 
Dupin,   Hist.  Eccles.    torn.    vi.    chap. 


122  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  I. 

conclusions,  therefore,  might  be  arrived  at,  they  might  disallow 
or  evade  them  at  pleasure. 

Nevertheless,  the  negotiations  were  not  discontinued.  Paul  III., 
who  succeeded  Clement,  seems  to  have  been  sincere  and  earnest 
in  endeavouring  to  conduct  them  to  a  practical  effect ;  but  his 
efforts  were  long  counteracted  by  one  grave  obstacle,  namely, 
the  bitter  personal  enmity  which  reigned  between  the  leading 
princes  of  Christendom,  the  Emperor  and  the  King  of  France. 
Both  the  civil  and  the  ecclesiastical  policy  of  Francis  I.  were 
full  of  inconsistencies ;  in  fact  he  may  be  said  to  have  had  no 
real  policy  except  that  of  blind,  passionate  hostility  to  Charles  V. 
This  is  the  master-key  to  all  the  anomalies  of  his  reign  with 
regard  to  the  treatment  of  the  Protestant  Keformers.  If  he  en- 
couraged them,  it  was  in  order  to  strengthen  his  own  domestic 
interests  and  to  embarrass  and  distress  his  rival ;  if  he  perse- 
cuted them  (and  this  he  did  at  times  with  merciless  rigour), 
it  was  with  a  view  to  curry  favour  with  the  Pope,  whose  good 
graces  might  otherwise  have  been  monopolised  by  the  Emperor. 

For  upwards  of  twenty  years,  with  brief  intervals,  did  Francis, 
single-handed,  struggle  for  predominance  in  Europe  against 
the  concentrated  strength  of  the  Germanic  empire ;  and  it  was 
not  till  the  Peace  of  Crespy,  in  1544,  that  the  two  monarchs 
could  be  brought  to  agree  on  any  plan  of  combined  action  for 
the  suppression  of  heresy  and  the  pacification  of  the  Church. 
Paul  III.  now  hastened  to  convoke  at  Trent,  for  the  spring  of 
the  year  following,  the  General  Council  which  had  been  so 
importunately  demanded  of  him  and  his  predecessors. 

No  sooner,  however,  had  the  Synod  commenced  its  sittings, 
than  it  appeared  that  the  feud  between  the  two  great  Catholic 
potentates,  instead  of  being  extinguished,  was  merely  trans- 
ferred to  a  new  scene.  The  emperor,  as  the  principal  promoter 
of  the  Council,  naturally  desired  that  his  influence  should  pre- 
dominate in  it;  Francis  strained  every  nerve  to  prevent  this, 
and  to  establish  his  own  ascendency.  The  Pope,  meanwhile, 
maintaining  an  attitude  of  vigilant  neutrality  between  the 
competitors,  laboured  so  to  shape  and  control  the  proceedings 
of  the  assembly  as  to  subserve  above  all  things  the  interests  of 
the  Holy  See. 

Feelings  of  jealousy  sprang  up  ere  long  between  the  Pope 
and  Charles,  in  consequence  of  the  advantages  gained  by  the 


A.D.  1545.  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT.  123 

latter  over  the  revolted  Protestants  in  the  brief  campaign  of 
]547.  Paul  had  supported  him  in  this  movement;  but  he  now 
began  to  view  the  success  of  his  arms  with  apprehension,  lest 
it  should  tend  to  reduce  the  Council  at  Trent  altogether  into 
subjection  to  the  Imperial  will.  At  the  risk,  therefore,  of  giving 
mortal  offence  to  Charles,  he  availed  himself  of  the  first  plausible 
pretext  for  removing  the  Synod  from  Trent  to  Bologna,  a  city 
within  his  own  dominions.  The  emperor  protested  vehemently, 
and  most  of  the  German  bishops  refused,  by  his  orders,  to  quit 
Trent.  Francis,  for  the  sole  reason  that  the  emperor's  influence 
was  less  likely  to  prevail  at  Bologna,  seconded  the  Papal  policy ; 
and  the  result  of  these  intrigues  was  that  the  deliberations  were 
suspended  for  the  space  of  nearly  four  years. 

The  action  of  the  Gallican  Church  was  much  embarrassed 
by  these  political  complications.  During  the  earlier  sessions 
at  Trent  it  was  represented  by  only  four  prelates — the  Arch- 
bishop of  Aix,  the  Bishops  of  Clermont,  Agde,  and  Kennes; 
and  in  the  memorable  decrees  concerning  original  sin  and 
justification  it  cannot  be  said  to  have  taken  any  effective 
part.  Francis,  however,  sent  three  ambassadors,  one  of  whom, 
Pierre  Danes,  a  man  of  superior  talent  and  learning,  made  an 
energetic  speech  on  taking  his  seat.  He  descanted  on  the 
eminent  services  which  the  kings  of  France  had  rendered  to 
the  Church  in  all  ages,  eulogised  the  religious  zeal  of  the 
reigning  monarch,  and  pleaded  powerfully  for  the  preservation 
of  the  well-known  rights  and  privileges  enjoyed,  by  immemorial 
tradition,  both  by  Church  and  State  in  France.* 

The  Cardinal-Legate  Del  Monte,  in  reply,  thanked  the  am- 
bassador for  the  sentiments  he  had  expressed  in  the  name  of 
his  sovereign ;  assured  him  that  the  Concordat  granted  by 
Leo  X.,  as  well  as  all  other  privileges,  should  be  preserved  to 
his  Most  Christian  Majesty,  "  so  far  as  equity  and  the  present 
position  of  affairs  would  admit ;"  and  pledged  himself  that  the 
proceedings  of  the  Council  should  be  such  as  to  give  the  king 
no  reason  to  repent  of  the  affection  and  sympathy  which  he  had 
testified  towards  the  Church. 

Henry  II.  trod  in  the  footsteps  of  his  father;  and  during 
his  reign  the  tide  of  animosity  between  France,  the  Empire, 


*  Fra  Paolo,  Liv.  ii.  §  71. 


124 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  I. 


and  the  Papacy,  ran  higher  than  ever.  Hostilities  broke  out 
upon  the  subject  of  the  duchy  of  Parma ;  the  King  of  France 
pertinaciously  supporting  the  cause  of  Ottavio  Farnese,  whom 
the  Pope  (Julius  III.)  had  denounced  as  a  rebellious  vassal  of 
the  Holy  See.  The  emperor — more  for  the  sake  of  opposing 
France  than  for  any  other  reason — sided  with  Julius,  and 
declared  war  against  Parma  in  May,  1551.  At  this  juncture 
the  Pope,  in  compliance  with  the  wishes  of  Charles,  determined 
to  reassemble  the  Council  of  Trent,  and  took  measures  for  that 
purpose,  contrary  to  all  precedent,  without  previous  consulta- 
tion with  the  King  of  France,  "  the  eldest  son  of  the  Church."  * 
In  the  "  bull  of  resumption  "  the  only  prince  mentioned  by 
name  was  "  our  beloved  son  in  Christ,  Charles  Emperor  of  the 
Romans."  Henry,  indignant  at  this  treatment,  not  only  refused 
to  permit  the  prelates  of  his  realm  to  obey  the  summons  to 
Trent,  but  ordered  them  to  repair  to  their  dioceses  and  prepare 
for  the  celebration  of  a  National  Council,  which  he  purposed  to 
convoke  without  delay. t  As  a  further  mark  of  resentment,  he 
prohibited,  by  letters-patent,  the  transmission  of  money  in  any 
shape  from  France  to  Rome.  Upon  this  the  Pope  despatched 
an  envoy  to  explain  and  adjust  matters  ;  but  Henry  was  not  to 
be  pacified ;  he  persisted  in  standing  aloof  from  the  Council, 
and  pointed  out  (what  was,  indeed,  true)  that,  in  the  absence 
of  the  Gallican  episcopate,  and  deprived  of  the  co-operation  of 
the  "eldest  son  of  the  Church,"  that  assembly  could  not  be 
regarded  as  oecumenical. 

At  the  same  time  he  assured  his  Holiness,  through  his 
ambassadors  at  Rome,  that  he  was  by  no  means  averse  to  a 
General  Council,  provided  it  were  such  as  it  ought  to  be,  for 
the  advantage,  repose,  and  reunion  of  the  Universal  Church — 
for  the  increase  and  preservation  of  true  religion,  and  the  ex- 


*  Henry,  however,  had  declared 
strongly  in  opposition  to  the  Council. 
See  his  letter  to  De  Termes,  his  am- 
bassador at  Rome,  in  Ribier,  Lettres  et 
Me'moires  d'Estat,  torn.  ii.  "Je  n'ai 
que  faire  de  demander  le  Concile,  pour 
ce  que  mon  royaume  n'en  a  point  de 
besom,  etant  tous  mes  subjets  bons 
Catholiques  et  tres  obe'issants  a  1'Eglise ; 
et  s'il  y  en  a  aucuns  desvoyants,  ils 
Bont  si  bien  chastie'a  que  les  autres  y 
doivcnt  prendre  exemple.  Mais  c'est  a 


faire  a  la  Germanie  et  aux  autres  roy- 
aumes  qui  en  ont  besoin  a  le  reque'rir. 
Et  quant  a  la  maniere  de  vivre  des 
ministres  de  I'Eglise  qui  sont  en  mon 
royaume,  si  reformation  y  estait  re- 
quise,  il  y  a  en  iceluy  un  assez  grand 
nombre  de  prelate,  gens  de  saincte  vie 
et  relligion,  pour  y  pourvoir,  sans  pour 
ce  se  mettre  en  peine  d'assembler  un 
Concile  General." 

t  Fra  Paolo,  Liv.  iv.  §  3. 


A.D.  1551. 


PROTEST  OF  HENRI  II.  AT  TRENT. 


125 


tirpation  of  prevailing  errors  and  abuses; — the  assembling  of 
such  a  Council  was  an  object  which  he  desired  above  all  things.* 
In  short,  the  real  ground  of  Henry's  opposition  was  precisely 
that  of  his  predecessor ;  that  in  an  ecclesiastical  assembly 
sitting  at  Trent,  the  views,  influence,  and  authority  of  the 
German  Emperor  would  to  a  certainty  predominate. 

At  the  first  session  of  the  restored  synod  (September  1,  1551) 
Jacques  Amyot,  Abbot  of  Bellozane,t  made  his  appearance  as 
special  envoy  from  the  King  of  France,  and  presented  a  letter 
addressed  "  to  the  most  holy  and  venerable  fathers  in  Christ 
of  the  Tridentine  Assembly "  (convening).  This  superscription, 
being  deemed  offensive  to  the  dignity  of  the  Council,  provoked 
angry  comments,  and  it  was  with  difficulty  that  the  document 
was  at  length  received  and  read.  J  It  contained  an  exposition 
of  the  reasons  by  which  Henry  felt  himself  precluded  from 
taking  part  in  the  proceedings ;  reflected  somewhat  severely  on 
the  conduct  of  the  Pope ;  renewed  the  protest  which  had  been 
made  previously  by  the  French  representatives  at  Home ;  and 
concluded  by  stating  that  his  Majesty  and  the  Gallican  Church 
could  not  recognize  the  Council  as  legitimate,  and  must, 
therefore,  decline  to  be  in  any  way  bound  by  its  decrees. 

The  fathers  of  Trent,  in  reply,  expressed  their  deep  regret 
that  opposition  should  have  arisen  in  a  quarter  from  which  the 
Council  might  reasonably  look  for  cordial  support;  observed 
that  the  road  to  Trent  was  as  freely  open  to  the  prelates  of 
France  as  to  those  of  any  other  nation  ;  and  besought  them, 
even  at  the  eleventh  hour,  to  obey  the  Pope's  citation,  and  join 
the  deliberations  of  their  brethren. 

Thus  hampered  by  the  secular  dissensions  of  the  day,  the 
French  Church  found  itself  excluded  from  all  share  in  the 
eventful  debates  which  preceded  the  Tridentine  definitions  on 
the  Sacrament  of  the  Eucharist  and  Transubstantiation.§ 

Indeed  the  difficulties  arising  from  the  religious  aspect  of 
affairs  at  this  period  involved  the  Government  in  a  course  of 


*  See  the  king's  letter  to  Cardinal  de 
Tournon  and  De  Tennes,  the  ambas- 
sador, in  Ribier,  Lettres  et  Mdmoires 
d'Estat,  torn.  ii.  p.  331. 

t  The  learned  translator  of  Plutarch's 
Lives.  He  was  also  preceptor  to  the 
royal  children,  afterwards  Francis  II., 


Charles  IX.,  and  Henry  III.  Charles 
IX.  made  him  "  Grand  Aumonier " 
and  Bishop  of  Auxerre. 

J  De  Thou,  Liv.  viii.  Fra  Paolo,  Liv. 
iv.  §  7. 

§  Concil.  Trident.,  Sess.  xiii. 


126  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  I. 

conduct  which  was  glaringly — almost  ludicrously — self-contra- 
dictory. At  the  very  moment  when  Henry  was  thus  embroiled 
with  the  Pope,  and  exhibiting  his  independence  by  forbidding 
his  subjects  to  send  money  to  Rome,  he  was  cruelly  persecuting 
the  Calvinists,  who  had  but  gone  a  few  steps  farther,  and  re- 
nounced the  authority  of  the  Roman  Pontiff  altogether.  Again, 
while  proscribing  Protestantism,  under  the  severest  penalties, 
in  his  own  dominions,  he  was  making  common  cause  with 
Maurice  of  Saxony  and  his  confederates,  who,  as  declared 
champions  of  Protestantism,  had  defied  the  Emperor,  and 
plunged  Germany  into  civil  war.  Nor  was  he  at  all  more 
logical  in  vaunting  his  privileges  as  the  "eldest  son  of  the 
Church,"  while  in  the  same  breath  he  forbade  the  bishops  of 
France  to  repair  to  a  regularly-constituted  Council,  and  even 
threatened  to  convene  a  local  assembly  in  direct  opposition  to 
it.  Such  were  some  of  the  singular  incongruities  which  marked 
the  earlier  stages  of  the  Reformation.  So  true  is  it,  that  in 
estimating  most  of  the  great  public  acts  which  helped  to  mould 
the  destinies  of  Europe  at  that  perplexing  crisis,  we  must  refer 
them  to  political,  rather  than  to  purely  religious,  considerations. 
Even  princes  who  were  thoroughly  Catholic  at  heart  were  often 
driven  to  belie  their  convictions,  and  act  injuriously  to  the  real 
interests  of  the  Church,  by  motives  which  on  examination  prove 
at  best  to  have  been  utterly  worldly, — suggested  by  mere  self 
love  and  personal  pique. 

In  the  sixteenth  session,  April  28th,  1552,  a  Papal  Bull  was 
read  announcing  the  suspension  of  the  Council  for  the  second 
time.  The  reason  assigned  was  the  sudden  outbreak  of  hostili- 
ties between  the  Emperor  and  the  Elector  of  Saxony.  The 
latter  prince  (who  was  in  alliance,  as  before  mentioned,  with 
the  King  of  France),  had  routed  the  Imperialists  in  several 
actions,  and  entered  Augsburg  in  triumph  on  the  1st  of  April. 
These  tidings  spread  consternation  at  Trent,  and  numbers  of 
prelates  and  divines  fled  from  the  city  in  extreme  confusion. 
The  Council,  though  nominally  suspended  for  two  years  only, 
now  remained  in  abeyance  till  the  accession  of  Pope  Pius  IV., 
whose  bull,  issued  November  29,  1560,  directed  it  to  reassemble 
at  Trent  at  Easter  the  year  ensuing. 


A.D.  1555.       STRENGTH  OF  FRENCH  PROTESTANTISM.  127 


CHAPTEE    II. 

DURING  this  interval,  the  disciples  of  Calvin,  encouraged  by  the 
success  of  their  co-religionists  in  Germany,  and  by  the  vacil- 
lating conduct  of  the  authorities  at  home,  propagated  their 
opinions  to  a  prodigious  extent  in  France.  It  was  in  the  year 
1555,  as  we  learn  from  Theodore  Beza,*  that  the  first  place  of 
public  Protestant  worship  was  opened  at  Paris.  The  example 
was  contagious,  and  conventicles  were  speedily  established  at 
Orleans,  Eouen,  Blois,  Tours,  Bourges,  Agen,  and  other  towns. 
Consistories  were  next  organized ;  synods  were  held ;  and  ere 
long  the  schism  from  the  Church  began  to  assume  the  appear- 
ance of  a  settled  institution.  How  to  deal  with  a  movement 
whose  aggressions  became  daily  more  audacious  and  more  for- 
midable was,  for  Catholics,  the  all-absorbing  problem  of  the  day. 

The  numerical  strength  of  French  Protestantism,  in  the 
middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  has  been  variously  estimated ; 
some  writers  carrying  it  as  high  as  the  tenth,  or  even  the 
eighth,  part  of  the  entire  population,  others  depressing  it  as 
low  as  the  seventeenth.  Taking  the  mean  between  these 
extremes,  the  sectaries  probably  mustered  about  one  million  and 
a  half.f 

From  the  first  their  cause  had  been  supported  by  personages 
of  exalted  rank  and  station ;  but  by  degrees  it  acquired  zealous 
partizans  in  all  grades  of  society.  It  was  warmly  patronized 
by  the  savans — by  those  who  had  borne  the  most  active  part  in 
the  recent  "  renaissance  "  of  art,  science,  and  classical  learning. 
It  had  made  many  notable  converts  among  the  magistracy  and 
"  gens  de  la  robe  ; "  and  it  was  encouraged  generally  by  men  of 
education,  capacity,  and  enlarged  views,  who,  without  endorsing 


*  Beza,  Histoire  des  Eglises  Eeforme'es,  France,  torn.  ix.  p.  201.  In  1562  there 

Liv.  iii.  p.  211.  were  about  8000  Huguenots  in  Paris; 

t  Lettres  de  Prosper  de  Saint  Croix  which  city  contained  at  that  time 

(Archives  Curiewes  de  THizt.  de  France,  \  300,000  inhabitants.  Sismondi,  Hist. 

torn.  vi.  p.  48).  Martin,  Hist,  de  des  Francais,  torn,  xviii.  p.  256. 


128  THE  GALLICAN  CHUECH.  CHAP.  II. 

all  the  extravagances  of  Luther  and  Calvin,  sincerely  advocated 
a  practical  regeneration  of  the  Church,  and  desired  to  see  that 
great  work  conducted  by  the  Church  herself.  The  most 
powerful  promoters  of  the  Keformation  in  France — morally  and 
intellectually  speaking — were  to  be  found  in  this  latter  class ; 
and  had  their  counsels  prevailed  in  the  actual  direction  of  the 
course  of  affairs,  it  may  be  safely  affirmed  that  the  history  of 
the  second  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  would  have  worn  a 
very  different  complexion. 

But  the  predominant  influences  were,  unfortunately,  of  a  more 
questionable  kind.  The  agitation  for  reform  in  the  Church  was 
complicated,  from  its  commencement,  with  political  interests, 
ambitious  intrigues,  private  enmities,  and  selfish  passions.  The 
leaders  on  both  sides  professed  to  be  actuated  by  the  highest 
and  most  sacred  principles ;  nor  need  we  doubt  that  religion 
was  honestly  felt  to  be  the  most  important  issue  at  stake.  But 
religious  concerns  were  so  speciously  mixed  up  with  considera- 
tions of  a  worldly  nature,  that  the  lower  motive  was  continually 
mistaken  for  the  higher ;  and  thus,  in  the  case  both  of  Catholics 
and  Protestants,  the  cause  nominally  advocated  was  in  reality 
endangered  and  betrayed. 

The  Huguenots  (as  the  French  reformers  now  began  to  be 
called)  had  up  to  this  time  been  simply  a  sect  of  dissenters  from 
the  national  Church ;  but  ere  long  they  were  driven,  by  the 
force  of  circumstances,  into  the  position  of  a  seditious  faction  in 
the  State.  The  heads  of  the  party  were  two  malcontent  princes 
of  the  blood-royal,  burning  with  indignation  against  a  rival 
family  of  scarcely  less  illustrious  lineage,  which  had  adroitly  pos- 
sessed itself  of  the  chief  direction  of  affairs.  It  was  perfectly 
natural  that  the  King  of  Navarre  and  his  brother  the  prince  of 
Conde  should  aspire  to  the  enjoyment  of  that  political  conse- 
quence which  seemed  to  befit  their  near  relationship  to  the 
throne.  It  was  no  less  natural  that  they  should  endeavour  to 
transfer  to  themselves  that  authority  which  they  deemed  to 
have  been  unfairly  usurped  by  the  House  of  Guise.  But 
to  suppose  that  the  governing  spring  of  their  conduct  was 
religion,  would  be  an  egregious  misconception  of  the  truth.  It 
cost  them  nothing,  on  the  score  of  conscience,  to  profess  the  Cal- 
vinist  creed ;  while  it  so  happened  that  that  profession  opened  a 
most  promising  prospect  for  the  advancement  of  their  worldly 


A.D.  1555.  THE  PARTY  LEADERS.  129 

fortunes ;  and  it  was  the  pursuit  of  this  latter  object  which  at 
length  misled  them  into  armed  insurrection  and  treason. 

The  Admiral  de  Coligny  and  his  brother  Franpois  D'Andelot 
were,  it  is  true,  men  of  a  higher  stamp  ;  Protestants  by  strong 
conviction ;  conscientiously  devoted  to  the  cause  of  what  they 
considered  to  be  essential  truth.  But  they  were  also  deeply 
imbued  with  the  spirit  of  political  partisanship  ;  they  thirsted 
for  ascendency  and  power ;  they  were  swayed  by  personal 
jealousies  and  deadly  animosities.  And  in  consequence,  they 
were  not  unfrequently  blind  to  the  real  character  of  acts  and 
counsels,  which,  but  for  the  mischievous  sophistry  of  party 
spirit,  they  would  probably  have  been  the  first  to  condemn. 

The  conduct  of  those  who  held  the  reins  of  government 
betrayed  similar  weaknesses,  and  was  manifestly  prompted  by 
secondary  and  unworthy  motives.  Ambition,  haughtiness, 
rapacity,  cruelty,  were  the  besetting  sins  of  the  House  of 
Lorraine.  These  princes  claimed  descent  by  direct  succession 
from  Charlemagne ;  and  not  only  esteemed  themselves  the 
equals  in  blood  of  the  reigning  family  in  France,  but  even 
maintained  pretensions,  more  or  less  plausible,  to  the  reversion 
of  their  inheritance.* 

The  two  elder  sons  of  the  first  Duke  of  Guise — Francis,  the 
second  duke,  and  Charles,  Cardinal  of  Lorraine — were  dis- 
tinguished no  less  by  their  talents  and  personal  attainments 
than  by  their  lofty  birth.  The  duke  was  an  able  military  com- 
mander, and  had  gained  universal  popularity  by  his  gallant 
defence  of  Metz  against  the  emperor,  his  recapture  of  Calais 
from  the  English,  and  other  brilliant  exploits.  His  brother, 
the  Cardinal,  possessed  a  character  abounding  with  splendid 
qualities,  which,  however,  were  darkly  shaded  by  strange  in- 
consistencies, if  not  by  scandalous  vices.  He  was  a  dexterous, 
though  not  a  profound,  politician;  an  erudite  scholar,  an 
accomplished  theologian,  a  practised  orator,  and  gifted  with 
singularly  attractive  manners.  On  the  other  hand,  he  was 
inordinately  vain ;  intensely  selfish ;  an  adept  in  the  arts  of 
dissimulation,  which  he  used  without  scruple;  and  generally 
believed  to  be  irregular  in  his  private  morals.  Born  in  1524, 
Charles  of  Lorraine  was  preferred  at  the  age  of  fifteen  to  the 


*  See  La  Place,  Commentaire  de  TEstat  de  Religion,  Liv.  ii.   . 
VOL.   I.  K 


130  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  II. 

Archbishopric  of  Reims; — a  somewhat  gross  specimen  of  the 
abuse  of  Church  patronage  by  the  Crown  since  the  Concordat. 
On  the  accession  of  Henry  II.  he  was  made  a  member  of  the 
Council  of  State,  and  was  soon  afterwards  elevated  to  the  Con- 
clave by  Pope  Paul  III.  In  addition  to  the  see  of  Reims,  the 
Cardinal  held  in  commendam  that  of  Metz,  besides  several  rich 
abbeys.  His  ecclesiastical  revenue  was  reckoned  at  300,000 
livres  (equal  to  about  three  times  that  amount  according  to  the 
present  value  of  money).  His  private  fortune,  moreover,  was 
considerable. 

The  influence  of  this  great  dignitary  was  paramount  with  the 
clergy,  who  looked  up  to  him  with  boundless  confidence  as 
the  all-powerful  protector  of  their  interests.  The  ecclesiastical 
administration,  and  indeed  the  whole  internal  government  of 
France,  was  in  his  hands.* 

The  Cardinal  had  accustome  himself — like  other  famous 
statesmen  before  and  since  his  time, — to  identify  the  public 
welfare  with  his  own  tenure  of  the  reins  of  power ;  and  if  he 
hated  and  persecuted  the  Huguenots,  it  was  not  so  much 
because  they  were  heretics,  as  because  they  were  his  political 
adversaries.  Not  that  Charles  of  Lorraine  was  at  all  deficient 
in  zeal  for  Catholicism ;  but  with  him  the  supremacy  of  the 
Guises  was  the  first  object,  the  supremacy  of  Catholicism  was 
the  second.  The  popular  pamphleteers  of  the  day  represented 
him  to  the  multitude  as  a  special  instrument  raised  up  by  Provi- 
dence for  the  defence  and  preservation  of  the  Faith ;  hence  his 
severities  against  the  Huguenots  passed  with  the  world  for 
proofs  of  ardent  devotedness  to  the  cause  of  religion,  whereas 
they  resulted  mainly  from  a  reckless  determination  to  trample 
down  and  annihilate  the  party  which  opposed  his  monopoly  of 
power. 

Henry  II.,  at  the  instigation  of  the  Cardinal,  now  embarked 
in  a  systematic  course  of  fierce  persecution.  An  attempt  was 
made,  in  1555,  to  enforce  the  execution  of  all  ecclesiastical 
sentences  against  heretics  without  permitting  any  appeal  to  the 
civil  magistrate.  This  was  firmly  resisted  by  the  heads  of 
the  parliament  of  Paris,  who  maintained,  in  a  remonstrance  to 


*  Memoir es  de  Castelnau,  Liv.  i.  chap.  1.    Auvert,  Viet  de»  Hommes  Ittuttres  .- 
Biograph.  Universelle. 


A.D.  1555.  PERSECUTION  OF  THE  HUGUENOTS.  131 

the  king,  that  it  belonged  to  the  temporal  courts  to  adjudicate 
finally  in  all  causes  without  exception ;  though  they  acknow- 
ledged the  right  of  the  spiritual  authorities  to  define  what  con- 
stituted the  crime  of  heresy.     The  secular  judges  had  hitherto 
been  relentless  in  condemning  the   Calvinists;   and  it  is   a 
remarkable  proof  of  their  altered  tone  of  feeling  with  regard  to 
the  great  controversy  of  the  day,  that  on  this  occasion  they 
deprecated  rigorous  measures,  and  even  proceeded  to  lecture 
the  sovereign  and  his  ministers  for  their  intolerance.     "We 
take  the  liberty  to  remark,"  said  they,  "  that,  inasmuch  as  the 
infliction  of  these  penalties  has  hitherto  been  ineffectual  to 
correct  error,   it  would  be  more  reasonable  to   imitate  the  \ 
example  of  the  Primitive  Church,  which,  instead  of  employ-  I 
ing  fire  and  sword  for  the  defence  of  religion,  relied  for  that  j 
purpose  on  purity  of  doctrine  and  the  saintly  lives  of  its  chief  j. 
pastors.    Let  the  bishops  be  more  sedulous  in  personally  super- 
intending the  flock  committed  to  them ;   let  them  faithfully 
preach  the  word  of  God,  or  at  least  take  care  that  this  duty  is  j 
conscientiously  discharged  by  others ;  let  them  never  promote  ] 
to  the  priesthood  any  but  men  whom  they  know  to  be  able  and 
willing  to  fulfil  their  ministry  without  resorting  to  the  services  j 
of  substitutes.     Such  measures  would  have  a  happy  effect,  we  j 
doubt  not,  in  arresting  the  progress  of  heresy  ;  but  if  these  are  j 
neglected,  the  most  peremptory  laws  and  edicts  will  assuredly  ; 
fail  to  supply  their  place."    This  spirited  appeal  was  successful,  } 
and  the  execution  of  the  edict  was  suspended.* 

The  Cardinal,  thus  foiled,  next  applied  himself  to  the  task  of 
resuscitating  in  France  the  terrible  tribunal  of  the  Inquisition. 
The  machinery  of  the  "Holy  Office"  was  still  extant,  and 
scarcely  differed  from  the  original  form  in  which  it  had  been 
cast  by  Innocent  III.  and  the  Dominicans ;  but,  practically,  it 
was  obsolete  and  powerless.  The  object  of  the  Cardinal  was  to 
revive  it  in  accordance  with  the  extreme  type  which  it  had 
assumed  in  Spain  under  the  fostering  hands  of  Philip  II.,  the 
success  of  whose  crusade  against  heresy  was  mainly  due  to  its 
agency.  A  bull  was  procured  from  Paul  IV.,  in  1557,  nomi- 
nating the  Cardinals  of  Lorraine,  Bourbon,  and  Chatillon,  grand 


*  De  Thou,  Hist.  Univ.,  Liv.  xvi. 

K  2 


132 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  II. 


Inquisitors  in  France,  and  empowering  them  to  hold  courts 
in  every  diocese,  from  whose  decision  there  was  to  be  no 
appeal;  the  secular  arm  was  simply  to  carry  their  sentences 
into  effect.  A  "bed  of  justice"  was  held  to  enforce  the  regis- 
tration of  this  stern  decree  of  the  Pope  ;  but  the  Parliament, 
in  the  very  act  of  acquiescence,  took  care  to  strip  it  of  its 
most  tyrannical  provision.  They  stipulated  that,  in  the  case 
of  laymen,  the  constitutional  resource  of  an  "appel  comme 
d'abus  "  from  the  Inquisitorial  tribunals  should  continue  to  be 
available.* 

This  second  defeat  only  served  to  impel  the  king  and  his 
advisers  to  still  more  odious  extremities.  By  this  time  the 
"  new  learning "  had  made  several  proselytes  on  the  judicial 
bench,  and  the  consequence  was  that  the  proceedings  of  the 
different  courts  of  Parliament  were  frequently  at  variance. 
The  Grande  Chambre,  in  which  the  judges  were  strict  Catholics, 
condemned  the  Huguenots  without  mercy;  the  "Tournelle" 
was  more  lenient,  admitted  extenuating  circumstances,  and 
rarely  or  never  inflicted  the  punishment  of  death.f  At  one  of 
the  periodical  meetings  of  the  Chambers,  called  "  Mercurial  es,"  J 
the  whole  question  of  the  treatment  of  offences  against  religion 
was  discussed  at  length ;  when  it  appeared  that  the  majority  of 
the  magistrates  were  in  favour  of  a  mild  interpretation  of  the 
existing  laws.  Upon  this  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  urged 
the  king  to  interpose  with  a  high  hand  in  support  of  his  own 
edicts ;  representing  that  such  a  step  was  especially  necessary 
at  that  moment,  in  order  to  vindicate  his  zeal  for  the  Church  in 
the  eyes  of  the  King  of  Spain,  with  whom  he  had  just  concluded 
the  treaty  of  Chateau-Cambresis.  Swayed  by  these  counsels, 
Henry,  on  the  10th  of  June,  1559,  proceeded  in  person  to  the 
parliament,  where  a  memorable  scene  ensued.  The  magistrates 
having  been  invited  to  declare  their  sentiments,  Anne  Dubourg, 


*  Isambert,  Anciennes  Lois  FranyaiseR, 
torn.  xiii.  p.  494. 

t  The  "  Tournelle"  was  the  ordinary 
criminal  court  of  the  Parliament  of 
Paris ;  so  named  because  the  judges 
composing  it  were  supplied  by  rotation 
(a  tour)  by  the  other  chambers. 

J  The  "  Mercuriales,"  so  called  from 
being  held  on  Wednesday  (dies  Mer- 
ourii),  were  meetings  of  all  the  magis- 


trates belonging  to  the  Parliament,  for 
the  purpose  of  reviewing,  and,  if  neces- 
sary, censuring  and  correcting,  the 
judicial  acts  of  the  six  months  pre- 
ceding. Originally  they  took  place 
every  month;  latterly  twice  a  year, 
after  the  Easter  and  autumn  vacations. 
From  this  practice  the  word  "  mer- 
curiale"  obtained  the  general  sense 
of  a  lecture  or  reprimand. 


A.D.  1 559. 


ARRESTS  AND  TRIALS  FOR  HERESY. 


133 


one  of  the  clerical  councillors,*  a  man  of  distinguished  family 
and  character,  made  an  indiscreet  and  irritating  speech,  in 
the  course  of  which  he  alluded,  by  no  means  obscurely,  to  the 
scandal  of  the  King's  immoral  life.  Another  councillor,  Louis 
Dufaur,  followed  in  the  same  strain,  and  declaimed  forcibly 
against  the  abuses  which  disgraced  the  Church.  The  advice 
of  the  majority  was  that  the  king  should  employ  all  his 
influence  to  procure  forthwith  a  free  (Ecumenical  Council ; 
and  that,  meanwhile,  penal  proceedings  against  heretics  should 
be  suspended,  and  liberty  of  conscience  proclaimed  throughout 
the  realm. 

Henry,  in  a  transport  of  rage,  caused  Dubourg  and  Dufaur 
to  be  arrested  on  the  spot.  Three  of  their  colleagues  were 
seized  at  their  own  houses  the  same  day ;  three  more  saved 
themselves  by  flight.  A  special  Commission,  presided  over  by 
the  Bishop  of  Paris,  was  appointed  to  try  the  prisoners  for 
heresy ;  and  Anne  Dubourg,  the  most  conspicuous  of  their 
number,  was  selected  as  the  victim.  The  king,  wild  with 
passion,  protested  that  he  would,  with  his  own  eyes,  see  him 
burnt  at  the  stake  before  a  week  was  past.f 

Henry  was  not  permitted  to  fulfil  this  savage  threat.  His 
own  life  was  cut  short  by  an  accidental  injury  at  a  tournament, 
and  he  expired  on  the  10th  of  July,  1559. 

Under  his  youthful  successor,  Francis  II.,  the  power  of  the 
Guises  rose  to  its  highest  pitch.  The  Queen-Consort,  Mary 
Stuart,  was  their  niece,  daughter  of  their  sister  Mary  of 
Lorraine.  Her  empire  over  her  feeble  husband  was  unbounded ; 
and  she,  in  her  turn,  was  completely  under  the  dominion  of  her 
uncles. 

The  religious  agitation  now  increased  alarmingly.  One  of 
the  presidents  of  the  Parliament,  belonging  to  the  party  opposed 
to  Dubourg,  was  assassinated  in  the  street  at  noon  day ;  and  the 
Huguenots,  though  without  direct  proof,  were  credited  with 
the  crime.  This  outrage  sealed  the  fate  of  Dubourg.  His 
trial  was  hastened;  he  was  capitally  condemned,  and,  after 


*  A  certain  number  of  "  conseillers- 
clercs "  were  attached  to  each  of  the 
Parliamentary  Courts,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  "  Tournelle." 


t  La  Place,  Estat  de  la  Religion,  Liv. 
i.  De  Thou,  Hist.  Univ.,  Liv.  xxii, 
Memoires  de  Conde,  torn.  i. 


134  THE  GALLICAN  CHUECH.  CHAP.  II. 

vainly  appealing  from  the  sentence,  was  executed  on  the  Place 
de  Greve. 

Upon  the  death  of  Dubourg  there  followed  almost  imme- 
diately an  explosion  of  the  various  elements  of  strife  which  had 
long  threatened  the  peace  of  society  in  France.  The  treason- 
able enterprise  called  the  conspiracy  of  Amboise  (March  1560), 
though  undertaken  in  the  name  of  religion,  was  a  general  com- 
bination of  all  parties  who,  for  whatever  reason,  were  hostile 
to  the  government  of  the  Guises.  Its  principal  cause,  how- 
ever, was  undoubtedly  religious  partisanship.  The  Huguenot 
leaders,  with  a  view  to  remove  any  scruples  of  conscience 
which  might  perplex  their  followers,  obtained  opinions  from 
certain  lawyers  and  divines  of  their  persuasion,  to  the  effect 
that  when  a  sovereign,  too  young  to  govern  in  person,  is  held 
in  bondage  by  usurping  ministers,  it  is  lawful  to  deliver  him 
from  their  yoke  by  force  of  arms,  provided  the  step  be  sanc- 
tioned by  the  princes  of  the  blood  or  the  Estates  of  the  realm.* 
On  the  strength  of  this  assurance,  measures  were  concerted  for 
taking  possession  of  the  Chateau  of  Blois,  where  the  court  was 
sojourning,  and  seizing  the  persons  of  the  Duke  of  Guise  and 
the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  who  were  either  to  be  put  to  death, 
imprisoned,  or  banished  from  France.  The  young  king  was 
then  to  be  placed  under  the  tutelage  of  the  Bourbons,  who  were 
to  succeed  to  the  management  of  affairs.  The  States-General 
were  to  be  summoned  forthwith;  effective  reforms,  civil  and 
ecclesiastical,  were  to  be  inaugurated,  and  complete  toleration, 
independence,  and  equality  were  to  be  secured  to  the  "  new 
religion." 

The  plot  was  betrayed  at  the  last  moment  to  the  Guises,  and 
was  defeated  with  ease  in  the  very  act  of  execution.  A  ruth- 
less butchery  of  the  unfortunate  prisoners  followed;  and  the 
insurrectionary  spirit  was  quelled  for  the  moment  by  the 
severity  of  these  acts  of  vengeance. 

From  the  conspiracy  of  Amboise  may  be  dated  the  com- 
mencement of  the  miserable  "  Wars  of  Eeligion."  And  the 
reader  will  do  well  to  take  special  note  of  the  fact  that  the  cause 
of  the  Reformation  was  thus  necessarily  identified  in  the  eyes 

*  De  Thou,  Liv.  xxv.  Mtfmoires  de  Condf,  torn.  i.  arm.  1560.  Th.  Beza,  Hist. 
Ecde*.,  Liv.  iii. 


A.D.  1560.  CATHERINE  DE  MEDICIS.  135 

of  the  Government,  and  of  the  great  mass  of  the  nation,  with 
that  of  political  disaffection  and  sedition. 

This  character — impressed  upon  it  by  the  misguided  counsels 
and  fanatical  excesses  of  its  friends — it  never  afterwards  lost ; 
indeed,  the  subsequent  course  of  events  developed  it  more  dis- 
tinctly. Those  who  study  dispassionately  the  records  of  the  time 
can  scarcely  avoid  the  conclusion  that  it  was  the  turbulent  and 
offensive  attitude  maintained  by  the  Huguenots  towards  the 
civil  power,  even  more  than  any  prejudice  arising  from  religion, 
that  brought  about  their  decisive  overthrow  as  a  party,  and  the 
ultimate  triumph  of  the  ancient  faith. 

Upon  the  death  of  Francis  II.  (Dec.  5,  1560)  a  remarkable 
change  took  place  in  the  posture  of  affairs.  The  supreme 
authority  passed  from  the  hands  of  the  Guises  into  those  of 
the  Queen-Mother,  Catherine  de  Medicis, — a  personage  who 
had  hitherto  been  of  no  importance  in  the  state,  and  whose  real 
character  was  unknown.  The  Guises,  though  not  altogether 
deprived  of  power,  were  reduced  to  a  secondary  position.  The 
Bourbon  princes, — who  had  only  just  escaped  condign  punish- 
ment as  traitors  by  the  opportune  demise  of  the  crown, — were 
now  admitted  to  the  council-board,  and  invested  with  high 
dignities.  The  Constable  Montmorency  and  his  nephew  the 
Admiral  de  Coligny  re-appeared  at  Court,  and  were  received  with 
distinguished  honour.  Catherine's  policy  (well  worthy  of  her 
fellow-countryman  Machiavelli,  whose  writings  probably  sug- 
gested it)  was  to  balance  the  great  rival  houses  against  each 
other,  allowing  neither  to  preponderate,  and  thus  to  secure  the 
real  sovereignty  to  herself  and  her  immediate  confidants. 

There  existed  in  France,  from  the  earliest  days  of  the  Eeform- 
ing  movement,  a  party  disposed  to  moderate  counsels ;  averse 
to  persecution,  anxious  for  practical  improvements  on  a  broad 
and  safe  basis,  attached  generally  to  the  ancient  Church,  but 
at  the  same  time  strongly  opposed  to  the  pretensions  of  Papal 
absolutism.  This  was  known  by  the  name  of  the  "  Tiers-parti." 
It  was  the  same  which  developed  afterwards  into  the  famous 
faction  of  the  "  Politiques,"  and  played  so  decisive  a  part  in 
the  struggles  of  the  "  League."  On  the  accession  of  Charles 
IX.,  the  Tiers-parti  found  itself  suddenly  in  the  ascendant.  At 
its  head  was  one  of  the  most  enlightened  and  disinterested  men 
of  the  time,  Michel  de  1'Hopital,  who,  by  the  favour  of  the 


136 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  IT. 


Queen-Mother,  and  without  opposition  from  the  Guises,  had 
just  been  created  Chancellor  of  France.  On  assuming  that 
high  office,  De  1'Hopital  avowed  himself  a  friend  to  toleration, 
and  willing  to  make  reasonable  concessions  to  the  professors  of 
the  "new  religion."  As  a  first  step  he  procured  a  meeting 
of  Notables  at  Fontainebleau,  where  it  was  resolved  to  con- 
voke without  delay  the  States-General  of  the  realm,  and  also 
a  National  Council,  in  which  the  Huguenots  were  to  be  fairly 
represented.* 

The  States  met  at  Orleans  on  the  13th  of  December.  The 
Chancellor,  in  his  opening  speech,  dwelt  earnestly  and  elo- 
quently on  the  duty  of  mutual  forbearance,  patience,  and 
charity ;  recommended  that  invidious  party  names,  such  as 
Lutheran,  Huguenot,  Papist,  be  for  ever  abolished ;  inveighed 
with  grave  severity  against  those  who  sought  to  propagate 
religious  opinion  by  sedition  and  physical  force;  hinted  that 
the  restoration  of  discipline  among  the  clergy  would  be  found 
one  of  the  most  effective  weapons  against  heresy ;  pointed  out 
that  theological  controversies  could  only  be  decided  by  a  Coun- 
cil ;  and  pledged  himself  that  no  exertion  should  be  spared  on 
the  part  of  the  Government  to  procure  the  application  of  that 
remedy  to  existing  evils. 

The  fruit  of  the  deliberations  which  ensued  was  the  cele- 
brated "  Ordonnance  of  Orleans."  Many  of  its  provisions 
were  identical  with  those  which  had  been  demanded  by  the 
minority  of  the  Parliamentary  magistrates  at  the  "  Mer- 
curiale "  two  years  before ; — a  proof  of  the  rapid  growth 
of  the  tolerant  school  of  opinion  represented  by  I'Hopital. 
It  proclaimed  an  amnesty  for  the  past,  the  chief  conspi- 
rators of  Amboise  being  alone  excepted.  Prisoners  for  reli- 
gious offences  were  restored  to  liberty,  and  those  who  had 
been  banished  on  like  grounds  were  authorized  to  return  to 
France,  provided  they  would  conduct  themselves  like  good 
Catholics  in  future.  If  they  declined  this  condition,  they  might 


*  This  expedient  was  warmly  advo- 
cated by  Charles  de  Marillac,  Arch- 
bishop of  Vienne,  a  man  of  remarkable 
foresight  and  sagacity.  "  Notre  mal 
nous  presse  si  fort,"  he  said,  "  le  feu 
estant  allume'  en  plusieurs  endroicts  du 
royaume,  que  nous  ne  pouvons  attendre 
un  remede  esloigne  et  incertain;  tout 


ainsi  qu'un  malade  de  fiebvre  continue, 
ou  autre  maladie  aigue,  ne  peult 
attendre  qu'on  soit  alle  querir  un 
medecin  bien  loin,  lequel  on  n'est 
certain  encores  qu'il  viendra.  II  faut 
done  venir  au  Coacile  National." — La 
Place,  Commentaire  sur  I'Estat  de  la 
Religion,  Liv.  iii. 


A.t>.  1561.  STATES-GENEKAL  OF  ORLEANS.  137 

sell  their  property  and  take  up  their  residence  abroad.  A  sub- 
sequent edict  enacted  that  heresy  should  not  be  punishable 
henceforth  with  any  severer  penalty  than  banishment ;  and 
six  months  later  (January,  1562)  all  penalties  against  Huguenots 
were  provisionally  suspended,  until  the  promulgation  of  the 
final  sentence  of  a  General  Council. 

The  States  of  Orleans  legislated  likewise  in  the  right  direc- 
tion on  the  all-important  subject  of  ecclesiastical  elections.  It 
was  decreed  that,  on  the  vacancy  of  an  episcopal  see,  the  bishops 
of  the  province  and  the  chapter  of  the  Cathedral,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  twelve  deputies  of  the  nobility  and  twelve  of  the 
commonalty  of  the  diocese,  should  present  the  names  of  three 
well-qualified  candidates  to  the  King,  of  whom  he  should  select 
one  for  the  appointment.*  That  such  a  statute  should  not  only 
have  passed  the  three  Chambers,  but  should  also  have  been 
accepted  by  the  Crown,  is  a  fact  well  worthy  of  note,  since  it 
amounted  to  nothing  less  than  an  abolition  of  the  Concordat. 
But  the  concession  was  merely  nominal.  The  new  regulation 
was  tacitly  set  aside,  and  the  sovereign  continued  to  bestow 
episcopal  sees  at  his  pleasure  as  heretofore. 

The  Chancellor  was  earnestly  bent  upon  carrying  a  further 
instalment  of  his  scheme  of  conciliation, — namely,  the  assemb- 
ling of  a  National  Council.  What  he  desired  under  this  name 
was  a  conference  between  the  leading  divines  of  the  two 
communions,  for  the  amicable  discussion  of  the  points  in  con- 
troversy ; — a  step  which,  he  trusted,  might  lead  to  some  tem- 
porary arrangement  by  way  of  compromise,  and  thus  pave  the 
way  for  eventual  reunion.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  he 
regarded  it  also  in  another  point  of  view — as  an  instrument 
which  might  be  useful  in  detaching  the  French  clergy  more  and 
more  from  the  Court  of  Rome,  and  accustoming  them  to  see 
critical  questions  affecting  domestic  interests  determined  inde- 
pendently of  foreign  intervention. 

The  news  of  these  strange  projects  in  France  excited  serious 
disquietude  at  Rome.  The  reigning  Pope,  Pius  IV.,  no  sooner 
discovered  that  Catherine  and  her  advisers  were  in  earnest  in 
preparing  to  hold  a  Gallican  Council,  than  he  resolved  to 
traverse  it  by  recalling  into  action  the  dormant  synod  of  Trent 


*  Isambcrt,  Aneiennes  Lois  Franyaises,  torn.  xiv.  p.  64. 


138  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  II. 

— a  step  which,  indeed,  he  seems  to  have  meditated  from  the 
beginning  of  his  Pontificate.  That  the  Protestants,  who  were 
every  day  increasing  in  numbers  and  power,  would  recognize 
such  an  assembly,  and  submit  to  its  decrees,  was  no  longer 
within  the  bounds  of  probability ;  but  it  might  be  possible  to 
avert,  by  this  expedient,  the  scandal  to  be  apprehended  from  a 
meeting  in  which  the  most  venerable  dogmas  of  the  Catholic 
faith  were  to  be  rudely  questioned  by  irreverent  schismatics, 
intruded  for  that  purpose  into  a  position  of  equality  with  the 
most  dignified  prelates  of  the  Church.  "  If  every  prince,"  cried 
the  indignant  Pontiff,  addressing  the  French  ambassador, 
"  were  to  take  upon  himself  to  hold  Councils  in  his  own  do- 
minions, the  Church  would  soon  become  a  scene  of  universal 
confusion."  He  also  complained  bitterly  that  the  French 
government  had  not  consulted  him  previously  as  to  the  pro- 
jected synod,  requesting  his  permission  to  hold  it,  instead  of 
convoking  it  first  and  acquainting  him  with  their  intentions 
afterwards.* 

The  resumption  of  the  Tridentine  Council  placed  the  pro- 
moters of  the  Gallican  scheme  on  the  horns  of  an  anxious 
dilemma.  If  they  persisted  in  their  plan,  they  set  themselves 
in  open  opposition  to  the  Holy  See,  and  to  the  first  principles  of 
Catholicism ;  if  they  abandoned  it,  they  relinquished  a  measure 
which  they  believed  to  be  of  the  deepest  national  importance, 
in  favour  of  one  from  which  they  expected  little  or  no  practical 
advantage. 

A  middle  course  was  finally  adopted.  It  was  agreed  that  the 
National  Council  should  not  be  celebrated  under  that  obnoxious 
name ;  but  the  bishops  and  clergy  were  invited  to  confer  with 
certain  chosen  members  of  the  Calvinist  body,  in  order  to 
ventilate  freely,  and  if  possible  to  adjust,  disputed  questions ; 
without  trenching,  however,  on  the  character  and  functions  of 
a  synod  representing  the  universal  Church.  The  Cardinal  of 
Lorraine  declared  in  favour  of  the  project  in  this  modified 
shape ;  partly,  it  is  said,  from  motives  of  vanity,  that  he  might 
have  an  opportunity  of  exhibiting  his  powers  in  demolishing 
the  heretics,!  and  partly  because  he  hoped  that  by  skilful 


*  Fra  Paolo,  Hist,  du  C.  de  Trenie,  Liv.  v.  §  53. 
f  Varillas,  Hist,  de  Charles  IX.,  torn.  i.  p.  97. 


A.D.  1561.  COLLOQUY  OF  POISSY.  139 

management,  the  inconsistencies  and  divisions  between  the 
different  sects  of  Protestants,  especially  between  the  Luthe- 
rans of  Germany  and  the  Calvinists  of  France,  might  be  so 
strongly  brought  out  in  the  course  of  the  debates,  as  to  shake 
the  credit  of  the  whole  system  of  the  Eeformation  in  the  public 
mind.  In  the  prospect,  moreover,  of  an  appeal  to  arms,  which 
manifestly  was  not  far  distant,  it  was  an  important  point  to 
separate  the  Huguenots  from  their  brethren  of  the  Augsburg 
Confession,  and  thus  deprive  them  of  any  advantage  which  they 
might  have  gained  by  coalition.  With  this  object  the  Guises 
entered  into  secret  negociation  with  the  Protestant  Duke  of 
Wirtemburg;  and  the  Cardinal  is  even  said  to  have  offered 
to  sign  the  Lutheran  profession  of  faith,  and  to  obtain  its 
recognition  in  France,  provided  the  Duke  and  other  princes  of 
the  Empire  would  agree  to  support  their  pretensions  and  policy.* 
The  "Colloquy  of  Poissy"  was  appointed  for  the  19th  of 
August,  1561.  Just  before  it  assembled,  Catherine  de  Medicis 
addressed  a  remarkable  letter  to  the  Pope,  in  which  she  ex- 
plained her  motives,  enlarged  on  the  many  notorious^  abuses 
which  infested  the  Church,  and  pointed  out  the  concessions 
which,  in  her  judgment,  ought  to  be  made  to  the  Reformers, 
for  the  purpose  of  re-establishing,  if  it  might  be,  unity  and 
peace.  She  stated  that  the  numbers  and  importance  of  the 
separatists  were  now  so  great,  that  it  was  hopeless  to  think  of 
coercing  them  by  rigorous  legislation  or  by  force  of  arms.  The 
party  was  strong  among  the  nobility  and  magistracy;  it  was 
constantly  on  the  increase,  and  was  formidable  throughout  the 
kingdom.  Nevertheless  it  was  consoling  to  reflect  that  the  Hugue- 
nots were  not  Anabaptists,  or  free-thinkers,  or  propagators 
of  monstrous  and  pestilent  opinions.  They  held  the  Apostles' 
Creed,  and  adhered  to  the  first  six  General  Councils.  This 
being  so,  it  was  felt  by  many  Catholics  that  they  ought  not  to 
be  violently  expelled  from  the  pale  of  the  Church ;  that  their 
difference  of  sentiment  on  certain  topics  might  be  tolerated 
without  danger;  and  that  such  a  course  might  even  tend  to 
facilitate  a  reconciliation  between  the  Latin  and  the  Oriental 
communions.  The  Queen  went  on  to  specify  the  measures 


*  See  Preuves  de  la  Satyre  Menippee,  torn.  iii.  pp.  6,  15,  26.     Also  Anquetil, 
Esprit  de  la  Lie/tie,  torn.  i.  p.  113. 


140  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  II. 

which  she  considered  desirable  towards  regaining  the  seceders, 
and  confirming  those  who  still  remained  in  the  fold.  She 
recommended  frequent  interviews  between  those  of  the  two 
parties  who  were  most  eminent  for  their  learning  and  their 
love  of  peace ;  diligence  on  the  part  of  the  clergy  in  exhorta- 
tions to  charity,  brotherly -kindness,  and  concord ;  careful 
abstinence  from  injurious  language  and  disputatious  habits. 
She  suggested,  further,  that  the  use  of  images,  since  it  was 
forbidden  in  Scripture,  might  be  advantageously  abolished ;  that 
the  ceremony  of  exorcism  in  baptism,  and  other  like  super- 
stitions, might  be  omitted ;  that  the  Holy  Eucharist  ought  to 
be  given  to  the  laity  under  both  kinds ;  that  prayers  and  psalms 
should  be  recited  in  public  in  the  vulgar  tongue;  and  that 
the  Feast  of  Corpus  Christi  (then  recently  instituted)  should 
cease  to  be  observed,  inasmuch  as  it  had  caused  widespread 
offence.* 

Such  language,  from  such  a  quarter,  at  such  a  moment, 
alarmed  and  irritated  the  Holy  Father.  It  sounded  as  if  the 
French  Court  had  resolved  to  take  the  concerns  of  religion  into 
its  own  hands,  without  either  seeking  directions  from  the  See  of 
S.  Peter,  or  consulting  the  supreme  legislature  of  Christendom. 
A  special  legate,  Hippolito  d'Este,  Cardinal  of  Ferrara,  was 
despatched  in  all  haste  to  France,  with  instructions  to  frustrate 
the  conference,  if  possible.  But  he  arrived  too  late. 

After  much  preliminary  negociation,  the  Colloquy  was 
opened  on  the  9th  of  September,  in  the  presence  of  the  young 
king,  the  Queen-Mother,  the  princes  of  the  blood,  the  great 
officers  of  the  Crown,  and  a  brilliant  audience.f  Cardinal 
de  Touruon,  Archbishop  of  Lyons,  presided ;  five  other  Cardinals 


*  Fra  Paolo,  Liv.  v.  §  72.  Varillas, 
Hist,  de  Charles  IX.,  torn.  i.  p.  103. 
The  letter  is  &aid  to  have  been  drawn 


Memoires  de  Conde.  The  official  record 
of  the  proceedings  may  be  seen  in  the 
first  vol.  of  the  Collection  des  Proctfs- 


up  by  the  Bishop  of  Valence,  Jean  de  I   verbaux  des    Assemblies    ge'nerales 

Montluc,  a  prelate  well  known  to  lean  j    Clerge   de  France,  which    commences 

towards  the  Kefonned  opinions.  from    this   date.      The  Colloquy  was 

f  The  contemporary  accounts  of  this  preceded  by  a  proclamation,  or  edict, 

meeting  vary  considerably.     That  of  \   giving    permission    to    all  the    king's 

Claude  d'Espence — Ada  CoUoquii  Pos-  subjects,    of    whatever    condition,    to 

siaci  —  is     probably   the    most    trust-  attend  at  Poissy,  with  a  promise  of 

•worthy.    We  have,  besides,  the  version  j   impartial  hearing  for  those  who  might 

published  by  the  Huguenots,  "  Ample  wish  to  address  the  assembly,  and  a 

discours  des  actes  de  Poissy,"   which  pledge  of  safety  in  going  and  returning, 

seems  to  have  been   followed   by  De  j    See  Me'moires  de  Conde',  torn.  i.  p.  41. 
Thou,  and    by  the    compiler    of   the 


A.D.  1561. 


COLLOQUY  OP  P01SSY. 


141 


attended,  together  with  forty  prelates,  a  numerous  phalanx  of 
doctors  of  the  Sorbonne,  and  many  deputies  from  the  chapters 
and  conventual  bodies.  The  Keformers  were  represented  by 
twelve  of  their  most  eminent  ministers,  headed  by  Theodore 
Beza,  the  favourite  disciple  and  confidential  friend  of  Calvin. 
Peter  Martyr,  who  was  reckoned  the  ablest  theologian  of  the 
party,  was  likewise  present. 

The  Chancellor  de  1'Hopital  commenced  the  proceedings*  in 
a  speech  which  by  no  means  pleased  the  Catholics,  since  he 
drew  a  parallel  between  the  advantages  of  a  National  and  an 
(Ecumenical  Council,  to  the  disparagement  of  the  latter.  The 
fathers  summoned  to  Trent,  he  said,  being  for  the  most  part 
strangers  to  France,  could  not  be  intimately  acquainted  with 
the  evils  which  required  redress;  and,  moreover,  would  be 
obliged  to  defer  to  the  personal  will  and  pleasure  of  the  Pope ; 
whereas  an  assembly  of  French  divines  was  directly  interested 
by  ties  of  natural  relationship,  by  local  experience,  and  by 
patriotic  motives,  in  healing  the  wounds  under  which  the 
country  groaned.  There  was  no  reason,  he  observed,  why  there 
should  be  any  opposition  or  collision  between  the  one  Council 
and  the  other ;  instances  were  on  record  of  two  Councils  being 
in  session  at  the  same  time ;  and  it  had  even  happened  that 
mistakes  committed  by  a  General  Council  had  been  rectified 
by  one  of  more  modest  pretensions.!  Cardinal  de  Tournon 
demanded  that  a  copy  of  this  discourse  should  be  furnished  to 
him  in  writing;  but  an  excuse  was  made  for  non-compliance. 
It  is  supposed  that  he  designed  to  call  the  Chancellor  to  account 
for  it  at  some  future  opportunity.  J 

Theodore  Beza  was  then  invited  to  speak.  He  entered  into  an 
elaborate  exposition  of  the  doctrinal  system  of  the  Eeformers, 
as  set  forth  in  the  "  Institutions "  of  Calvin.  His  tone  was 
calm,  conciliating,  and  impressive.  In  treating  of  the  Eucharist, 
he  employed  language  which  at  first  seemed  almost  tantamount 
to  the  Catholic  terminology  on  that  vital  point.  But  on 
further  explanation  it  appeared  that  the  Presence  which  he 


*  Continual,  de  Fleury,  Liv.  clvii.  4. 

f  This  was  an  allusion  to  the  Council 
of  Paris  in  A.D.  360,  which  rejected  the 
heretical  confession  of  faith  propounded 
by  the  Council  of  Ariminum  in  359, 


where  the  Arians  had  for  the  moment 
triumphed. 

J  Mtfrnoires  de  Condtf,  torn.  ii.  p.  492. 
Varillas,  Hist,  de  Charles  IX.  torn.  i. 
p.  124. 


142  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  II. 

recognized  was  subjective  only;  depending,  not  on  the  super- 
natural virtue  of  the  Sacrament,  but  on  the  power  of  faith  ;  to 
be  sought,  not  in  any  change  of  the  substance  of  the  elements, 
but  in  the  heart  of  the  devout  communicant.  Beza  repudiated 
both  Transubstantiation  and  Consubstantiation.  "  The  glorified 
Body  of  Christ,"  he  contended,  "  is  in  heaven,  and  cannot  be 
elsewhere."  He  allowed  that  by  the  Sacrament  we  are  really 
made  partakers  of  Christ ;  "  but  with  respect  to  actual  locality," 
continued  Beza,  forgetting  for  a  moment  his  discretion,  "  Christ 
is  as  far  distant  from  the  consecrated  bread  and  wine  as  the 
highest  heaven  is  remote  from  earth." 

At  this  unfortunate  sally  the  Catholics  could  not  restrain 
their  indignation.  "He  blasphemes!"  they  exclaimed.  Car- 
dinal de  Tournon  rose  hastily,  and,  in  a  voice  trembling 
with  emotion,  begged  that  Beza  might  not  be  allowed  to  pro- 
ceed further,  for  fear  of  poisoning  the  tender  mind  of  the 
young  monarch.  He  obtained  leave,  however,  though  with 
difficulty,  to  bring  his  speech  to  a  conclusion ;  and,  after  a  few 
more  words  of  angry  remonstrance  from  the  Cardinal,  the 
assembly  separated  in  a  state  of  agitation.* 

At  the  second  meeting,  several  days  afterwards,  the  Cardinal 
of  Lorraine  replied  to  Beza  in  a  discourse  well  worthy  of  his 
high  reputation  both  as  an  orator  and  a  controversialist.  He 
confined  himself  to  two  points — the  authority  of  the  Church 
and  the  Eeal  Presence  in  the  Eucharist.  From  the  unvarying 
testimony  of  tradition  to  the  Catholic  dogmas,  he  proved  the 
infallibility  of  the  "  Ecclesia  docens  "  in  her  decisions  founded 
upon  it.  All  doctrinal  controversy,  he  argued,  turns  upon  the 
right  interpretation  of  Holy  Scripture.  How  then  is  the  sense 
of  Scripture  to  be  ascertained,  unless  there  be  an  authoritative 
tribunal  to  which  appeal  may  be  made  continually;  a  living 
voice  to  adjudicate  between  truth  and  error  as  each  successive 
emergency  arises?  What  could  ever  be  sufficient  to  justify 
Christians  in  rejecting  the  guidance  of  such  an  infallible 
teacher  ?  And  then,  dexterously  resorting  to  the  "  argumentum 
ad  hominem,"  he  reminded  the  Huguenots  that  they  had  been 
baptized  into  the  communion  of  the  Roman  Church,  had  pro- 


*  De  Thou,  Hist.  Univ.  Liv.  xxviii.     La  Place,  Commentaire  de  VEstat  de 
Religion,  Liv.  vi. 


A.D.  1561.  COLLOQUY  OP  POISSY.  143 

fessed  its  creed,  and  obeyed  its  authority,  until  certain  pro- 
ceedings on  the  part  of  its  rulers  in  recent  times  had  chanced 
to  give  them  offence. 

With  respect  to  the  Eucharist,  the  Cardinal  exposed  the 
contradiction  into  which  Beza  had  fallen,  by  asserting  that  we 
are  really  partakers  of  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ  in  that 
Sacrament,  while  he  maintained  at  the  same  time  that  Christ, 
being  locally  in  heaven,  cannot  be  in  any  other  place.  It  was 
far  more  philosophical  and  more  reasonable,  he  contended, 
to  believe  with  Catholics,  that  the  Body  of  Christ,  which  is  no 
longer  a  natural  but  a  spiritual  and  immortal  body,  subject  to 
conditions  of  existence  of  which  we  know  absolutely  nothing, 
may  be  present  in  many  places  at  one  and  the  same  time.  The 
doctrine  of  the  Real  Presence,  as  held  in  the  Church  of  Rome, 
he  proceeded  to  establish  by  proofs  drawn  with  great  ability 
from  Holy  Scripture  and  the  principal  Fathers.* 

The  sitting  was  now  adjourned.  Those  which  followed  were 
not  held  in  the  presence  of  the  King  and  Court,  but  were  com- 
paratively private.  Theodore  Beza  attempted  to  justify  the 
position  of  the  separatists  from  the  Church,  by  distinguishing 
between  the  succession  of  persons  and  the  succession  of  true 
doctrine,  and  arguing  that  the  former  is  of  no  avail  except  in 
conjunction  with  the  latter.  Being  thereupon  asked  who  had 
ordained  him  to  the  ministry,  he  replied  that  there  is  an  extra- 
ordinary vocation  to  that  office,  in  addition  to  the  ordinary; 
just  as  there  is  a  Church  of  the  predestined  and  elect,  besides 
that  outward  communion  which  consists  of  all  Christians  indis- 
criminately. Both  general  and  particular  Councils,  he  affirmed, 
have  repeatedly  fallen  into  error ;  for  an  assembly  of  bishops 
is  not  less  fallible  than  any  other  body  of  men.  Yet  God  will 
always  preserve  in  His  Church  a  certain  number  of  faithful 
witnesses,  either  greater  or  smaller,  who  will  hand  down  the 
knowledge  of  saving  truth. 

Claude  d'Espence  and  Claude  de  Saintes,  two  of  the  most 
eminent  controversial  scholars  of  the  time,  refuted  without 
difficulty  these  paradoxes  of  the  Calvinist  divine,  which,  it  must 


*  This  speech  is  given  at  full  length  in  the  Collection  des  Proces-verbaux  des 
Assemblies  Gen&ales  du  Clerge'de  France,  torn,  i.,  "Pieces  justificatives,"  No.  2. 


1-14  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  II. 

be  remembered,  were  not  then  so  trite  and  hackneyed  as  they 
appear  to  readers  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  recurring  to  the  crucial  subject  of 
the  Eucharist,  now  enquired  whether  Beza  and  his  colleagues 
were  willing  to  subscribe  the  article  of  the  Confession  of  Augs- 
burg relating  to  that  doctrine  ?  Beza,  in  reply  to  this  insidious 
question  (the  purpose  of  which  he  penetrated),  demanded 
whether  the  Cardinal  and  the  other  prelates  were  themselves 
prepared  to  adopt  it  ?  If  they  had  authority  to  make  the  pro- 
position in  the  name  of  the  Catholics  as  a  body,  he  hailed  it  as 
a  happy  omen,  since  in  that  case  the  tenet  of  Transubstantia- 
tion  would  necessarily  be  expunged  from  the  JRoman  creed ;  but 
if  they  would  not  accept  the  Lutheran  article  themselves,  with 
what  consistency  could  they  tender  it  as  a  test  of  orthodoxy  to 
others  ?  This  keen  rejoinder  disconcerted  and  provoked  the 
Cardinal ;  and  the  rest  of  the  debate  seems  to  have  been  little 
better  than  a  scene  of  indecorous  altercation.* 

Lainez,  the  famous  General  of  the  Jesuits,  who  had  come  to 
France  in  company  with  the  Cardinal-legate  of  Ferrara,  assailed 
the  Huguenots  with  vituperative  epithets,  and  even  rebuked 
the  Queen-Mother  to  her  face  for  suffering  the  Conference  to 
take  place.  Beza  retorted  in  a  style  of  raillery  still  more 
exasperating. 

Though  it  was  clear,  after  this,  that  the  affair  could  not  ter- 
minate successfully,  it  was  resolved  to  make  a  final  effort  of 
approximation,  and  for  this  purpose,  a  select  committee  of  ten 
persons  was  named  from  the  most  moderate  members  of  each 
party.  After  some  days  of  negociation,  these  divines  drew  up  a 
formulary  upon  the  doctrine  of  the  Eucharist,  in  the  terms  of 
which  it  was  hoped  that  all  sincere  friends  of  peace  in  the  rival 
communions  might  be  induced  to  concur.  Its  language,  of 
course,  was  to  some  extent  ambiguous,  in  order  that  each  party 
might  be  at  liberty  to  construe  it  in  accordance  with  their  own 
prepossessions.  The  following  was  the  draft  agreed  upon  : — 

"  We  confess  that  Jesus  Christ,  in  His  Holy  Supper,  presents, 
gives,  and  exhibits  to  us  the  true  substance  of  His  Body  and 
Blood  by  the  operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  and  that  we  receive 


*  Varillas,  Hist,  de  Charks  IX.,  torn.  i.  p.  161. 


A.D.  1561.  COLLOQUY  OF  P01SSY.  145 

and  eat  sacramentally,  spiritually,  and  by  faith,  that  very  Body 
which  died  for  us,  that  we  may  be  bone  of  His  bone  and  flesh  of 
His  flesh.  And  inasmuch  as  faith,  resting  on  the  word  of  God, 
makes  present  things  which  are  promised,  so  that  thereby  we 
receive  actually  the  true  and  natural  Body  and  Blood  of  our 
Lord  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  that  sense  we  acknow- 
ledge the  real  presence  of  Christ  in  the  Holy  Supper."  * 

With  the  help  of  this  evasive  phraseology  an  understanding 
might  possibly  have  been  effected,  provided  both  sides  could 
have  agreed  to  accept  the  statement  in  a  general  sense,  as  an 
article  of  peace,  intentionally  excluding  technicalities,  and  not 
to  be  too  narrowly  criticised.  But  its  authors  must  have  been 
conscious  that,  if  submitted  by  Catholic  divines  to  the  rigorous 
test  of  scientific  definition,  its  failure  was  inevitable. 

The  result  showed  that  the  whole  enterprise  was  simply  hope- 
less. The  doctors  of  the  Sorbonne,  being  appealed  to,  rejected 
the  formulary  as  "  captions,  insufficient,  and  heretical."  Upon 
this  the  prelates  put  forth  a  counter  statement,  asserting  the 
Real  Presence  by  transubstantiation  of  the  elements,  according  to 
the  authorized  tradition  of  the  Church.  This  they  forwarded 
to  the  queen,  with  a  request  that  Beza  and  his  associates  might 
be  ordered  to  signify  their  acceptance  of  it  without  further 
demur,  under  pain  of  being  proscribed  as  heretics  and  banished 
from  the  kingdom. 

This  peremptory  demand  was  equivalent  to  a  rupture  of  the 
negociation ;  and  the  Conference  of  Poissy  thus  terminated 
without  satisfactory  result. 

It  was  a  woeful  disappointment  to  De  1'Hopital  and  his  friends. 
They  now  saw  the  utter  futility  of  attempting  to  accommodate 
matters  by  means  of  a  National  Council ;  nor  was  the  augury 
at  all  more  promising  with  regard  to  the  action  of  the  General 
Council  about  to  reassemble  at  Trent,  in  which  lay  the  sole 
remaining  chance  of  a  peaceful  solution.  The  irreconcilable 
discrepancies  between  the  two  great  Protestant  denominations 
had  been  exposed  with  damaging  ability ;  and  the  disputants, 
instead  of  settling  the  conditions  of  reunion,  separated  with 
feelings  of  increased  estrangement. 

Other  circumstances  concurred  to  augment  the  mortification 


*  Th.  Beza,  Hint.  de»  Egl.  Ref,  i.  608.     Contin.  de  Fleury,  Liv.  clvii.  24. 
VOL.   I.  L 


146  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  II. 

of  those  who  had  been  most  sanguine  in  promoting  the  late 
negociations.  The  King  of  Navarre,  yielding  to  the  fascinating 
rhetoric  of  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  and  to  the  political  bribes 
of  Philip  of  Spain,  abandoned  the  Huguenots  and  returned  to 
the  bosom  of  the  Church  of  Borne.  It  was  at  this  juncture, 
too,  that  the  Jesuits  first  obtained  a  legal  footing  in  France. 
Their  General,  Lainez,  procured  an  arret  from  the  Parliament, 
referring  the  question  of  their  admission  to  the  prelates  as- 
sembled at  Poissy.*  That  body  decided  in  their  favour,  though 
with  certain  qualifications ;  whereupon  the  courts  of  law  regis- 
tered their  letters  of  reception,  and  they  were  put  into  posses- 
sion of  a  college  at  Paris  which  had  been  bequeathed  to  them 
by  Guillaume  Duprat,  Bishop  of  Clermont ;  an  institution 
which  soon  acquired  celebrity  under  the  name  of  the  College 
de  Clermont.t 

The  state  of  things  now  grew  rapidly  worse  in  France.  The 
Queen-Mother,  under  the  guidance  of  De  I'Hopital,  persevered 
for  some  time  longer  in  her  efforts  to  soothe  and  conciliate  the 
sectaries ;  and  the  edict  of  Saint  Germain,  published  in  January, 
1562,  was  a  further  step  than  any  which  had  yet  been  taken 
towards  establishing  complete  liberty  of  conscience.}:  But  it  was 
instantly  met  by  a  vehement  ultra-Catholic  reaction.  The  "  Tiers- 
parti  "  lost  the  control  of  affairs,  which  was  seized  by  a  menacing 
coalition  headed  by  the  Constable  Montmorency,  the  Duke  of 
Guise,  and  Marshal  de  St.  Andre.  Their  alliance  became  known 
by  the  ill-omened  title  of  the  "Triumvirate."  Within  three 
months  afterwards,  the  long-suppressed  violence  of  parties  burst 
forth  in  the  accidental  rencontre  called  the  "  Massacre  of  Vassy," 
and  the  flames  of  civil  strife  were  forthwith  kindled  throughout 
the  land. 

Upon  the  close  of  the  proceedings  at  Poissy,  the  Gallican  pre- 
lates received  the  king's  commands  to  prepare  to  set  out  for 
Trent.  The  Council  had  been  opened  there  pro  forma  several 
months  previously,  but  had  been  unable  to  commence  opera- 
tions, on  account  of  its  manifest  inadequacy,  in  point  of 
numbers  and  importance,  to  represent  the  Catholic  world.  The 
attendance  of  bishops  gradually  increased,  and  the  first  session 


Contin,  de  FUury,  Liv.  clvii.  32.       f  Dulaure,  Hist,  de  Paris,  torn.  iv.  p.  219. 
J  Me'moires  de  Conde,  torn.  iii.  p.  8. 


A.D.  J562.  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT.  147 

under  Pius  IV.  (counted  as  the  seventeenth)  was  held  on  the 
18th  of  January,  1562. 

There  were  those  in  France  who  still  cherished  a  vague  hope 
that  the  collective  wisdom  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Church  might 
devise  the  means  of  a  safe  reformation,  and  that  a  happy  re- 
union might  thus  succeed  to  the  calamities  of  schism.  But 
such  visions  were  altogether  baseless.  No  mere  concessions  on 
matters  of  ceremonial  and  outward  discipline,  such  as  the  grant 
of  Communion  in  both  kinds  to  the  laity,  or  the  celebration  of 
Divine  service  in  the  vulgar  tongue,  would  have  sufficed  at  this 
moment  to  win  back  the  wanderers  to  the  fold,  even  had  the 
Council  been  willing  to  consent  to  them.  Every  day's  experi- 
ence proved  more  plainly  that  the  gulf  which  separated  the  two 
systems  was  too  broad  and  deep  to  be  thus  easily  bridged  over; 
and  that  the  innovations  of  Protestantism  amounted  in  sober 
truth,  as  well  as  in  popular  parlance,  to  a  "  new  religion." 

It  was  felt,  by  the  deepest  thinkers  on  both  sides,  that  the 
controversy  had  passed  beyond  the  region  of  calm  discussion 
and  amicable  adjustment.  All  that  remained  to  be  done  at 
Trent,  as  things  then  stood,  was  to  declare  the  mind  of  the 
Church,  definitely  and  positively,  upon  the  points  at  issue, 
and  so  to  provide  a  standard  of  belief  to  which  Catholics  might 
appeal  thenceforward  as  a  final  and  supreme  authority. 

The  Court  of  France,  nevertheless,  professed  to  be  full  of 
hope  for  the  future  if  the  Tridentine  fathers  could  be  induced 
to  give  way  on  certain  minor  questions  of  ecclesiastical  polity 
and  ritual  order ;  and  these,  accordingly,  were  embodied  in  the 
instructions  given  to  the  ambassadors  of  Charles  IX. — Saint 
Gelais  de  Lansac,  Arnaud  Du  Ferrier,  and  Dufaur  de  Pibrac — 
all  magistrates  of  high  position,  and  strongly  attached  to  the 
party  headed  by  De  1'Hopital. 

They  were  charged  to  demand,  in  the  first  place,  that  the  Coun- 
cil should  be  explicitly  declared  to  be  a  new  assembly,  and  not  a 
mere  continuation  of  the  old.  Special  stress  was  laid  upon  this 
distinction,  for  the  sake  of  avoiding  offence  to  the  Protestants  ; 
who,  having  denied  the  legitimacy  of  the  earlier  proceedings 
under  Popes  Paul  and  Julius,  could  hardly  be  expected  to 
submit  to  the  same  tribunal  which  they  had  formerly  rejected. 
The  reader  will  remember,  moreover,  that  Henry  II.  had  entered 
a  protest,  in  his  own  name  and  that  of  the  Gallican  Church, 

L  2 


148  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  II. 

against  all  synodal  acts  at  Trent  posterior  to  the  Xllth  session, 
in  September,  1551.  As  a  second  point,  they  were  to  urge  that 
the  deliberations  of  the  Council  must  be  free  ;  and  that  no 
reservation  should  be  made,  as  was  the  case  on  former  occasions, 
of  "the  good  pleasure  of  the  Pope  and  his  legates."  The 
decisions  at  which  the  fathers  might  arrive  were  not  to  be 
submitted  to  the  judgment  of  the  Pope ;  on  the  contrary,  it 
was  to  be  clearly  understood  that  his  Holiness  had  no  power  to 
alter  or  dispense  with  them  in  the  very  least  particular,  and  that 
he  himself  was  bound  to  obey  them.  Further,  inasmuch  as  the 
existing  troubles  had  arisen  from  the  flagrant  abuses  prevalent 
among  the  clergy,  and  from  the  general  decay  of  discipline,  the 
ambassadors  were  to  recommend  the  Council  to  apply  itself 
forthwith  to  the  thorough  reformation  of  the  Church,  as  well  in 
its  head  as  in  its  members,  conformably  with  the  well-known 
decrees  of  the  Council  of  Constance.  With  a  view  to  such 
reformation,  the  Pope  should  be  requested  not  to  interfere, 
directly  or  indirectly,  in  the  appointment  of  bishops,  abbots,  or 
parochial  clergy ;  the  disposal  of  benefices  should  be  left  to  the 
ordinary  collators.  The  Pope  ought  plainly  to  renounce  for 
the  future  the  prerogative  of  dispensing  with  the  decrees  of 
Councils.  Annates,  and  all  other  taxes  payable  by  ecclesiastics 
to  the  Court  of  Home,  should  be  abolished ;  and  official  docu- 
ments issuing  from  the  Kornan  chancery  ought  to  be  furnished 
without  charge.  Archbishops  and  bishops  ought  to  be  bound  to 
residence  within  their  dioceses,  without  exemption.  None  should 
be  advanced  to  the  episcopate  unless  duly  qualified  as  to  age 
and  other  canonical  requirements.  Newly-appointed  prelates 
should  be  admitted  and  consecrated  according  to  the  rules  laid 
down  by  the  Councils.  Lastly,  the  royal  envoys  were  enjoined 
to  keep  vigilant  watch  over  the  privileges  and  liberties  of  the 
Gallican  Church ;  and  in  the  event  of  any  attack  being  made 
upon  them,  they  were  to  protest  against  ft  forthwith,  and  send 
information  to  the  king.* 

It  was  on  the  26th  of  May,  1562,  that  the  representatives  of 
his  most  Christian  Majesty  made  their  first  public  appearance  at 
Trent.  Pibrac  addressed  the  Council  on  this  occasion  in  a  speech 
of  considerable  ingenuity,  though  of  questionable  taste.  He 


*  Contin.  de  Fleury,  Liv.  clviii.  60. 


A.D.  1562.  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT.  149 

enlarged  on  the  manifold  snares  and  artifices  by  which  the  great 
Tempter  would  seek  to  blind  the  understanding  and  corrupt  the 
hearts  of  those  then  assembled  in  consultation  on  the  affairs 
of  the  Church.  Self-interest,  servility,  sloth,  worldly-mindedness, 
duplicity — such,  according  to  this  unceremonious  monitor,  were 
the  special  dangers  which  beset  them.  He  warned  them  not  to 
mar  the  good  work  before  them  by  yielding  to  these  weaknesses. 
Eeform  was  indispensable ;  and  that  reform,  he  gave  them  to 
understand,  must  commence  with  themselves.  Other  Councils, 
he  went  on  to  remark,  had  been  held  both  in  Italy  and  Germany, 
which,  unhappily,  had  proved  useless  to  the  Church ;  and  perhaps 
for  this  reason  among  others,  that  they  had  not  enjoyed  the 
necessary  freedom  of  action.  To  prevent  this  in  the  present 
instance,  the  fathers  should  remember  that  they  were  individu- 
ally responsible  as  judges  of  all  the  questions  which  might  be 
brought  before  them  ;  that  they  were  bound  to  give  their  opinion 
according  to  the  dictates  of  conscience,  without  listening  to  pre- 
judice or  passion ;  and  that  they  must  not  invoke  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  Holy  Ghost  from  any  other  quarter  than  Heaven. 
This  last  hint  was  a  sufficiently  plain  allusion  to  the  pressure 
which  was  said  to  be  exercised  upon  the  Council  by  the  Pope. 
The  same  insinuation  was  afterwards  repeated  in  coarser 
language  by  De  Lansac,  who,  in  a  letter  to  his  colleague  at 
Home,  begged  that  no  ground  might  be  given  for  a  rumour 
which  he  had  heard,  that  the  Holy  Spirit  was  despatched  from 
Rome  to  Trent  in  the  courier's  portmanteau.*  After  some 
further  admonitions  in  the  same  tone  of  covert  raillery,  Pibrac 
concluded  by  urging  the  legates  to  declare  officially  that  the 
present  was  no  mere  continuation  of  the  Council  begun  under 
Paul  III.,  and  carried  on  by  Julius  III.  in  the  midst  of  tumult 
and  disorder — but  an  entirely  new  assembly,  convoked  freely, 
legitimately,  and  according  to  ancient  usage,  with  the  consent 
of  the  princes  of  Christendom  ;  an  assembly  which  would 
doubtless  be  attended  by  deputies  from  the  Eeformed  States  of 
Germany,  qualified  by  their  learning  and  talent  to  represent 
the  views  and  interests  of  those  who  were  striving  for  the  puri- 
fication of  the  Church.t 


*  See  his  letter  to  M.  de  Lisle,  May  29,  1562 ;  in  Le  Plat,  torn.  v.  p.  1G9. 
t  Contin.  de  Fleury.  Liv.  clix.  16. 


150 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  II. 


The  Spaniards,  and  others  who  had  been  engaged  in  the 
earlier  proceedings  of  the  Council,  were  much  offended  by  this 
harangue.  The  legates  replied  to  it  with  dignity  and  modera- 
tion; assuring  the  ambassadors  that  the  Council  was  by  no 
means  disposed  to  submit  to  dictation,  in  whatever  shape  it 
might  be  attempted ;  that  it  was  fully  resolved  to  be  guided  by 
no  principles  save  those  of  honour  and  duty,  as  the  result  would  • 
prove  in  due  time.*  They  had  no  authority,  they  said,  to  make 
any  alteration  in  the  "  indiction "  of  the  Council ;  their  office 
was  to  preside  in  it,  according  to  the  terms  of  the  Pope's  bull, 
confirmed  by  the  assent  of  the  fathers.  After  this  the  question 
about  the  "continuation"  of  the  Council  was  dropped.  Indeed 
it  had  been  mooted  without  reason,  inasmuch  as  the  bull  of 
indiction  was  so  worded  as  to  admit  the  view  for  which  the 
French  contended,  though  without  positively  excluding  the  con- 
trary construction.! 

The  Gallican  episcopate,  meanwhile,  was  still  absent  from 
Trent,  or  slenderly  represented  there  by  the  Bishop  of  Paris, 
Eustache  du  Bellai,  and  two  or  three  of  his  colleagues.  The 
religious  commotions  which  distracted  France  were  alleged  as 
the  cause  of  their  non-arrival ;  but,  considering  that  the  Council 
had  been  convened  for  the  very  purpose  of  appeasing  these  com- 
motions, and  that  the  condition  of  France  was  the  principal 
subject  of  solicitude  and  alarm  in  the  ecclesiastical  world,  there 
was  no  great  force  in  this  excuse.  The  real  reasons  which 
withheld  the  French  from  proceeding  to  Trent  appear  to  have 
been  these : — first,  they  shrank  from  the  measures  of  practical 
reform  affecting  their  own  order,  which  were  known  to  be  in 
contemplation,  and  of  the  necessity  of  which  they  were  fully 
conscious ;  and  next,  they  found  it  difficult  to  decide  what  line 
of  action  to  adopt  amid  the  mazy  intrigues  and  conflicting 
interests  which  abounded  in  the  Council.  They  were  far  from 
being  agreed  among  themselves  as  to  some  of  the  most  important 
questions  in  debate,  particularly  as  to  the  policy  of  making  con- 


*  "Aperte  prsedicit,  se  cujusvis  volun- 
tatem,  potentiain,  aut  cupiditatem, 
sacrosanctse  Synodi  dignitati  et  auctori- 
tati  perpetuo  posthabituram."— Le  Plat, 
torn.  v.  p.  183.  Labbe,  Condi.,  torn, 
xiv.  p.  1180. 

t  "  Us    se    sont    accorde's  .   .   .  de 


paroles  ambigues  et  equivoques,  qui 
semblent  tmffire  pour  la  presente  con- 
corde,  en  ces  terines :  celebratio  Con- 
cilii  sublata  quacunque  suspensione." 
— M.  de  Lisle  au  Koy  de  France,  Jan. 
25, 1562-3.  Le  Plat,  torn.  v.  p.  16. 


A.D.  1562. 


COUNCIL  OF  TRENT. 


151 


cessions  to  the  Huguenots.  Even  the  sentiments  of  the  Cardinal 
of  Lorraine  were  on  many  points  ambiguous,  and  the  greatest 
uncertainty  prevailed  as  to  the  part  which  he  might  actually 
play  in  the  deliberations  of  the  assembly. 

It  were  idle  to  indulge  in  speculation  as  to  the  amount  of 
influence  for  good  which  the  French  prelates  might  have  exer- 
cised, had  they  shown  more  zeal  in  repairing  to  the  seat  of  the 
Council,  strong  in  numerical  force,  and  unanimous  as  to 
the  objects  which  they  desired  to  gain.  It  is  well  to  mention, 
however,  that  in  all  probability  they  might  at  least  have  suc- 
ceeded in  carrying  a  decree  for  the  restoration  of  the  Eucharistic 
Cup  to  the  laity.  In  the  course  of  the  discussions  on  that 
subject  it  was  abundantly  proved  that  such  a  change  of  discip- 
line would  be  acceptable  to  large  numbers  of  Catholics,  besides 
being  urgently  demanded  on  behalf  of  the  Protestants;  and 
there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  Pope  himself  was  not  person- 
ally opposed  to  it.*  But,  in  the  absence  of  those  who  might 
have  turned  the  scale  decisively  in  favour  of  concession,  the 
Council  pronounced  that  communion  "  sub  utraque  "  is  not  of 
Divine  obligation ;  f  and  left  it  to  the  Pope  to  judge  of  the  par- 
ticular cases  and  circumstances  in  which  it  might  be  expedient 
to  authorize  it.J  The  French  ambassadors,  however,  entered  a 
special  plea  for  the  preservation  of  one  of  the  ancient  privileges 
of  the  kings  of  France,  who  were  accustomed,  from  time  im- 
memorial, to  communicate  in  both  kinds  on  the  day  of  their 
coronation. 

The  French  prelates,  headed  by  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  at 
length  reached  Trent  on  the  13th  of  November,  1562.  They 
were  fifteen  in  number,  and  were  accompanied  by  three  abbots 
and  eighteen  divines  of  the  Sorbonne.  Other  prelates  arrived 
from  France  soon  afterwards;  and  with  these  reinforcements 
there  were  two  hundred  and  eighteen  bishops  assembled  in 
Council.  The  Gallicans,  however,  were  still  a  mere  fraction 
as  compared  with  the  Italians,  the  greater  part  of  whom  were 
pensioners  of  the  Pope,  and,  as  such,  his  submissive  creatures. 

The  movements  of  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  were  jealously 
watched  by  the  Court  of  Rome,  since  he  was  reported  to 


*  Fra  Paolo,  Liv.  yi.  §  58. 
t  Sess.  xxi.  cap.  i.     Labbe,  C&ncil, 
torn.  xiv.  p.  846. 


J  Concil.  Trident.  Seas.  xxii.  Fra 
Paolo,  Liv.  vi.  §  56.  Contin.  de  Fkury, 
Liv.  clx.  53. 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  II. 

entertain  ideas  and  projects  inimical  to  the  Papal  interests. 
He  had  been  heard  to  boast  that  he  would  place  himself  at 
the  head,  not  only  of  the  French,  but  also  of  the  Spanish 
and  German  prelates  in  the  Council.*  It  was  apprehended 
that,  if  he  should  thus  assume  the  position  of  a  party  leader, 
he  might  be  tempted  to  foment  the  discussion  of  unpalatable 
questions.  He  might  think  proper  to  ventilate  the  doctrine 
which  was  known  to  be  so  popular  among  his  countrymen 
as  to  the  supreme  authority  of  General  Councils;  he  might 
insist  on  sweeping  measures  of  administrative  reform,  and 
the  extirpation  of  lucrative  abuses;  he  might  agitate  vexa- 
tiously  for  changes  in  the  disciplinary  system  of  the  Church, 
for  the  sake  of  humouring  the  Calvinists.  Every  effort  was, 
in  consequence,  made  at  Home  to  counteract  his  influence. 
The  Cardinal-legate  of  Ferrara  was  secretly  instructed  to 
dissuade  him  from  attending  the  Council;  while  the  legates 
at  Trent  were  ordered  to  hasten  matters  so  as  to  bring  it 
to  a  close,  if  possible,  before  the  dreaded  visitor  could  make 
his  appearance  on  the  scene.  As  soon  as  his  arrival  was 
announced,  the  Pope  sent  a  confidential  emissary  to  Trent, 
ostensibly  to  compliment  him  by  a  mark  of  special  favour, 
but  in  reality  to  act  as  a  spy  on  his  proceedings.! 

It  turned  out,  however,  that  there  was  no  reason  for  such 
excessive  mistrust.  The  Cardinal,  undoubtedly,  was  a  stanch 
Gallican  on  the  point  of  the  superiority  of  a  General  Council 
over  the  Pope.J  He  was  charged,  moreover,  by  his  govern- 
ment, to  urge  upon  the  fathers  of  Trent  certain  indispensable 
articles  of  reformation,  in  the  necessity  of  which  he  himself 
concurred.  In  principle,  therefore,  and  as  the  leading  repre- 
sentative of  the  Church  of  France,  he  could  not  do  otherwise 
than  uphold  the  national  maxims ;  but  it  will  appear  in  the 


*  See  the  "Memoire  secret  "of  Prosper  tient  1'autorite  du  Concile  pardessus  le 

de  Ste.  Croix  (Santa  Croce),  Nuncio  at  Pape,  et  sont  censures   comme  he're'- 

Paris,  addressed  to  Cardinal  Borromeo,  |   tiques  ceux  qui  tiennent  le  contraire. 
Aug.  5,  1562.     (Archives  Curieuses  de 


I'Histoire  de,  Frawe,  torn.  vi.  p.  109.) 
t  Fra  Paolo,  Liv.  vii.  §  31.     Contin. 

de  Fleury,  Liv.  clxi.  19,  20. 

J  See    his    letter   to    his    agent  at 

Eorne,   Jan.   14,   1563,   in    Le    Plats 

Collection,   torn.    v.   p.   653.      "Je  ne 


En  France  on  tient  le  Concile  de  Con- 
stance pour  geue'ral  en  toutes  ses 
parties;  Ton  suit  celui  de  Basle,  et 
tient  celui  de  Florence  pour  iion  le'gi- 
time  ni  general ;  et  Ton  fera  plutut 
mourir  les  Francois  que  d'aller  an  con- 
traire. .  .  .  Les  privileges  du  royaume 


puis  nier  que  je  suis  Francois,  nourri   |   sont  tons  fonde's  et  appuyc's  sur  cette 
en  I'Universite  de  Paris,  en  laquelle  on      verite." 


A.D.  1562.  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT.  153 

sequel  that,  under  the  pressure  of  circumstances,  he  was  prac- 
tically a  timeserver,  and  governed  by  the  dictates  of  his  own 
ambition.  He  forbore,  when  once  convinced  of  the  expediency 
of  that  course,  to  demand  the  dogmatic  assertion  of  truths 
which  might  be  detrimental  to  the  Pope's  prerogative ;  and  on 
several  critical  occasions  he  lent  effective  aid,  both  by  his  vote 
and  influence,  to  the  Ultramontane  section  of  the  Council. 

At  the  moment  of  his  arrival  the  assembly  was  in  a  state 
of  violent  excitement  on  a  question  which  could  not  well  be 
avoided,  though  its  discussion  was  by  no  means  likely  to  turn 
to  the  advantage  of  the  Church — namely  the  institution  and 
jurisdiction  of  the  episcopate.  That  the  Christian  hierarchy  is 
of  Divine  origin  was,  of  course,  indisputable  among  Catholics ; 
nevertheless  the  subject  was  not  without  its  controversial  diffi- 
culties. One  party  (the  Ultramontane)  held  that  the  powers  of 
diocesan  bishops  are  derived  mediately  from  the  Sovereign 
Pontiff,  who  assigns  to  each  a  portion  of  that  universal  pastoral 
responsibility  which  is  centralized  in  his  person.*  Others 
maintained,  on  the  contrary,  that  all  bishops  are  by  their 
office  equal;  that  their  authority  is  immediately  "of  Divine 
right ;"  and  that  their  character  is  complete  without  any  form 
of  institution  by  the  Pope.  This  latter  doctrine — based  on  the 
strongest  evidence  of  primitive  antiquity — was  manfully  enun- 
ciated, in  the  Congregation  of  the  1st  of  December,  by  Avos- 
mediano  Bishop  of  Cadiz;  and  the  plain-spoken  freedom 
of  this  prelate  led  to  a  scene  of  unprecedented  agitation  in 
the  Council.  The  Ultramontanes  shouted  "Anathema!  heresy! 
away  with  him!"  and  it  was  with  no  small  difficulty  that 
the  legates  restored  order.  The  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  then 
rose,  and  animadverted  with  severity  on  this  indecent  outburst. 
He  declared  that  the  opinion  of  the  Spanish  prelate  was  any- 
thing but  heretical ;  and  added  that,  if  it  had  been  one  of  the 
French  bishops  who  had  met  with  such  insolent  treatment,  he 
(the  Cardinal)  would  have  felt  it  his  duty  to  protest  against  the 
acts  of  the  Council,  and  to  return  forthwith  to  France.! 


*  "  Assumptos  a  Romano  Pontifica 
in  partem  sollicitudinis."  Tlie  phrase 
is  taken  from  a  well-known  passage 
in  one  of  St.  Leo's  Epistles.  "Vices 
nostras  ita  tuas  credidimus  Caritati,  ut 
in  partem  sis  vocatus  sollicitudinis,  noil 


Ep.  xiv.  (al.  xii.)  ad  Anastas.  Thessalon. 
Cf.  Grat.  Decret.  Caus.  iii.  Q.  6,  c.  8. 
The  crux  of  the  dispute  was  whether 
bishops  derive  from  the  Pope  the 
power  of  Order,  or  only  that  of  juris- 
diction. 


in  plenitudinem  potestatis."    S.Leon.          f  t'ontin.  de  Fleunj,  Liv.  clxi.  43.  41. 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  II. 


Addressing  himself  to  the  main  question,  he  proceeded  to 
discourse  for  two  hours  in  a  style  which,  though  it  excited 
universal  admiration,  savoured  strongly  of  a  politic  compromise 
between  conviction  and  expediency.  Eejecting  alike  the  extra- 
vagant Ultramontanist  theory  propounded  by  the  Jesuit  Lainez, 
and  the  view  which  attributes  to  the  Pope  no  more  than  a 
precedency  of  rank  among  his  equals  in  office,  the  astute  French- 
man steered  a  middle  course,  which  conducted  him  to  a  safe,  if 
not  a  strictly  logical,  conclusion.  He  acknowledged  that  the 
Episcopal  Commission  proceeds  immediately  from  Christ;  but 
argued  that  its  practical  exercise  must  depend  on  the  direction 
of  the  prince  of  bishops,  the  successor  of  Peter.  Those  were  no 
times,  he  observed,  for  venturing  upon  any  step  which  might 
tend  to  abridge  the  authority  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff.  That 
authority  was  a  principle  absolutely  necessary  to  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  unity  of  the  Church ;  and  for  his  part,  nothing  should 
ever  induce  him  to  consent  to  any  decision  which  might  appear 
to  derogate  from  it.  He,  therefore,  exhorted  the  fathers  to 
omit  the  phrase  "  de  jure  divino"  from  the  canon  under  dis- 
cussion (the  7th  canon  on  the  Sacrament  of  Order),  and  to 
content  themselves  with  stating  in  general  terms  that  the  Epis- 
copate was  instituted  in  the  Church  by  Jesus-  Christ  himself.* 

The  rest  of  the  French  prelates,  however,  were  not  deterred 
by  the  influence  of  their  superior  from  delivering  their  senti- 
ments conscientiously  and  freely.  Some  few  felt  it  necessary 
to  endorse  the  views  of  the  great  Cardinal ;  but  the  majority 
declared  that  the  powers  of  the  episcopate  are  inherently 
Divine,  and  independent  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff.  The  supe- 
riority of  the  Pope  over  bishops,  they  maintained,  is  not  a 
superiority  of  Order,  but  of  rank  or  degree.  The  Pope,  equally 
with  all  other  prelates,  is  subject  to  the  legislative  control  of 
the  Church ;  he  is  equally  bound  by  the  canons.  Those  who 
most  distinguished  themselves  by  thus  defending  the  ancient 
doctrine  of  the  Church  of  France  were  Claude  d'Angennes, 
Bishop  of  Le  Mans,  Eustache  du  Bellai,  Bishop  of  Paris,  and 
Francois  de  Beaucaire,  Bishop  of  Metz,f  who  in  former  days 
had  been  tutor  to  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine. 


*  Paleotti  Acta  Condi.  Trident,  p. 
348  (Edit.  Mendham,  1842).  Fra 
Paolo,  Liv.  vii.  §  38.  Pallavicino, 
Liv.  xix.  chap.  4. 


t  Beaucaire  (or  Belcarius)  was 
author  of  the  Rerum  Gallicarum  Com- 
mentaria,  a  work  of  considerable  value 
for  the  history  of  these  times. 


A.D.  1562. 


COUNCIL  OF  TKENT. 


155 


The  war  of  opinion  on  this  much-vexed  question — a  question 
which  involved,  in  its  manifold  ramifications,  all  the  principles 
at  issue  between  the  constitutional  and  the  absolutist  parties  in 
the  Church — raged  fiercely  in  the  Council  for  many  months, 
and  at  one  time  threatened  to  terminate  in  its  dissolution.* 
The  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  preserved  throughout  the  position  of 
a  mediator.  Theologically,  he  agreed  with  his  Gallican 
brethren ;  but  he  deprecated  any  conciliar  definition  of  tenets 
known  to  be  offensive  to  the  Holy  See  ;  and  lamented,  moreover, 
that  theoretical  disputes  of  this  kind  should  be  allowed  to  obstruct 
the  all-important  work  of  internal  reform  to  which  the  assembly 
was  pledged.  Three  times  did  the  Cardinal,  at  the  invitation  of 
the  legates,  remodel  the  controverted  canon ;  they  were  still 
dissatisfied,  and  at  length  determined  to  refer  the  difficulty  to 
the  Pope.  This  led  to  further  negociations  and  further  em- 
barrassment. His  Holiness  proposed  various  amendments  in 
the  draft  submitted  to  him,  and  subjoined  to  it  an  additional 
canon,  in  which  the  Pope  was  declared  to  have  the  power  of 
"  feeding,  ruling,  and  governing  the  Universal  Church."  t 

It  seems  probable  that,  had  a  direct  vote  been  taken,  the 
Ultramontanes  would  have  been  in  a  majority.  But  the  legates, 
knowing  the  strength  of  the  opposition,  wisely  resolved  to  avoid 
the  unseemly  spectacle  of  a  division  upon  a  matter  of  such  grave 
import ;  and  in  the  end  it  was  arranged  that  all  mention  of 
Pontifical  supremacy  should  be  omitted  from  the  canon,  and 
that  the  hierarchy  of  the  Church,  in  its  threefold  order  of 
bishops,  priests,  and  deacons,  should  be  defined  to  have  its 
origin  "  ex  ordinatione  Divina."  J  That  the  Court  of  Rome  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  bishops  of  France  on  the  other,  were 
brought  to  acquiesce  in  this  mode  of  winding  up  the  dispute, 
was  due  chiefly  to  the  judicious  counsels,  earnest  entreaties,  and 
masterly  tactics,  of  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine. 

The  result  was  in  reality  a  triumph  for  the  Gallican  tradition, 
which,  in  the  absence  of  any  authoritative  decision  of  the  Church 
to  the  contrary,  remains  a  permissible  and  legitimate  opinion, 


*  Fra  Paolo,  Liv.  vii.  §  53.  Centin. 
de  Fleury,  Liv.  clx.  93. 

t  "  Plenam  potestatem  pascendi,  re- 
gendi,  et  gubernandi  universalem  Ec- 
clesiam  a  Dn°.  N°.  Jesu  Christo  in 
B°.  Petro  eisdem  traditam."  Cf.  Pale- 


otti  Act.  Condi.  Trident,  p.  367.  This 
phrase  is  a  quotation  from  the  famous 
decree  of  the  Council  of  Florence. 

J  Condi.  Trident.  Sess.  xxiii.  cap.  4, 
Canon  vi. 


156  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  II. 

however  strongly  the  tide  of  feeling  among  Catholics  of  a 
certain  school  may  have  run  counter  to  it  in  more  recent 
times.*  So  far  as  the  Council  of  Trent  is  concerned,  it  is  open 
to  the  faithful  to  regard  the  Episcopate  as  holding  its  func- 
tions immediately  from  God,  without  any  secondary  agency  on 
the  part  of  the  Roman  Pontiff;  though  there  is  nothing  in  the 
decree  to  make  the  Ultramontane  theory  untenable. 

The  Cardinal  took  a  similar  course  upon  the  thorny  question 
of  clerical  residence,  which  was  also  debated  with  much  warmth 
and  at  tedious  length.  He  maintained,  in  theory,  that  residence 
is  a  matter  of  Divine  obligation ;  but  he  subjoined  so  many 
exceptions  and  modifications,  that  it  was  not  easy  to  discover 
whether  his  real  opinion  was  favourable  or  the  reverse  to  the 
proposed  decree  on  the  subject.  In  this,  as  in  other  instances, 
the  controversy  turned,  not  so  much  on  the  doctrine,  as  on  the 
consequences  of  the  doctrine.  If  it  were  defined  that  residence 
is  necessary  by  Divine  command,  it  followed  that  the  Pope  had 
no  authority  to  dispense  with  it;  and  one  entire  and  most 
important  branch  of  the  Pontifical  prerogative  would  thus  be 
swept  away.  This  sufficiently  accounts  for  the  earnestness 
with  which  the  decree  was  advocated  by  the  sincere  friends  of 
reformation,  and  for  the  pertinacity  of  the  Ultramontanes  in 
opposing  it.  The  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  desired  to  stand  well 
with  both  parties ; — to  satisfy  the  demands  of  his  temporal 
sovereign,  but  at  the  same  time  to  avoid  giving  offence  in  the 
quarter  from  which  he  derived  his  ecclesiastical  rank ;  and 
the  natural  result  was,  that  his  conduct  was  not  heartily 
approved  by  either.  The  French  bishops  pronounced  almost 
unanimously  for  the  definition  of  residence  as  obligatory  by 
the  law  of  God.f  Eventually  the  difficulty  was  surmounted, 
like  many  others,  by  a  compromise.  Residence  was  strictly 
enjoined  upon  the  clergy  of  all  ranks,  including  cardinals — 
but  without  any  express  mention  of  the  jus  divinum;  and 
the  Pope  was  declared  to  be  the  proper  judge  of  the  causes 


*  Cf.     Bossuet,     Defens.    Dedarat.,   \  Bishop    of   Lavaur,     "  O    utinam    ad 
Praev.  Dissert.,  §  xiv.  hujus  galli  canturn  Petrus  resipisceret 


The  speech  of  one  of  them — 
Nicolas  Psaume  of  Verdun — drew  from 
an  Italian  prelate  the  feeble  witticism, 
"  Gallus  nimium  cantat."  "  O  uti- 
nam," retorted  the  learned  Danes, 


et  fleret  amare!"  This  anecdote  is 
given  by  Ge'neTjrard  in  his  funeral 
oration  for  the  Bishop  of  Lavaur  in 
April,  1577.  See  Le  Plat,  torn.  vii.  p. 
224.  Paleotto,  p.  573. 


A.D.  1563.  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT.  157 

which,  under  particular  circumstances,  might  lawfully  dispense 
with  it.  * 

On  the  2nd  of  January,  1563,  the  French  envoys  transmitted 
to  the  legates  their  "  Articles  of  Reformation  " — thirty-four  in 
number — with  a  request  that  they  might  be  immediately  laid 
before  the  Council.  In  addition  to  the  demands  already  spe- 
cified, they  contained  others  bearing  on  the  residence  of  the 
clergy,  the  qualifications  of  candidates  for  orders,  the  efficient 
exercise  of  the  jurisdiction  of  bishops,  the  regular  celebration  of 
provincial  Councils ; — in  short,  the  series  of  measures  recom- 
mended would  have  ensured  a  complete  revival  of  Church  dis- 
cipline throughout  France.f  But  when  the  legates  inquired  of 
the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  whether  he  himself  approved  of  all 
these  articles,  he  replied  that  there  were  some  of  them  to  which 
he  strongly  objected,  and  that  he  had  reason  to  believe  that  this 
feeling  was  shared  by  many  of  his  colleagues. $  Indeed,  it  was 
no  secret  that  the  prelates  of  France  were  at  heart  opposed  to  a 
reform  which  would  have  fallen  chiefly  upon  abuses  and  cor- 
ruptions notoriously  practised  by  themselves.§ 

The  Pope,  to  whom  the  French  requisitions  were  forthwith 
despatched  by  a  special  messenger,  was  at  first  much  irritated, 
but  was  soon  reassured  by  a  private  communication  from  the 
Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  who  intimated  that  his  Government  would 
be  satisfied  with  much  less  in  the  way  of  concession  than  the 
whole  of  what  was  formally  demanded ;  and  that  if  his  Holiness 
should  think  fit  to  grant  the  communion  of  the  Cup  to  the  laity, 
the  marriage  of  priests,  and  the  use  of  the  vulgar  tongue  in 
Divine  service,  he  would  find  no  difficulty  in  bringing  the 
Council  to  a  close  with  honour  to  himself  and  contentment  to 
all  parties.!  Upon  this  a  temporising  reply  was  forwarded  from 
Rome  to  France.  The  Pope  expressed  his  approbation  of  many 
of  the  articles,  but  pointed  out  that  others  were  opposed  to  the 
authority  and  interest  of  the  Crown  itself,  inasmuch  as  they 


*  Concil.  Trident.,  Sess.  xxiii.  cap.  1, 
"  De  Keformatione." 

t  Paleotti,  Act.  Concil.  Trident.,  p. 
400.  Contin.  de  Fleury,  Liv.  clxiii. 


arranged  in  the  Council  of  State  at 
Paris. 

§  See    the  Me'moire   Secret    of   the 
Nuncio  Santa  Croce  to  Cardinal  Borro- 


4,  5.  i  meo,  under  date  of  March   29,  1563. 

Nevertheless  it  appears  that  the  i  ( Archives    Curieuses    de    I'Histoire  de 


Cardinal  had  expressly  approved  these 
articles  when  they  were  discussed  and 


France,  torn,  vi.) 

H  Conlin.  de  Fleury,  Liv.  clxiii.  30. 


158  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  IT. 

would  curtail  the  royal  prerogative  of  patronage,  and  tend  to 
make  the  bishops  too  powerful  and  independent.  Commending 
these  objections  to  the  king's  consideration,  he  requested  him  to 
transmit  fresh  instructions  to  his  ambassadors  at  Trent.  Time 
was  thus  gained,  and  unwelcome  demands  eluded;  but  when 
the  French  renewed  their  importunities,  Pius  flatly  refused  to 
permit  the  legates  to  propose  their  articles  to  the  Council.  He 
seems  to  have  done  this,  not  so  much  because  he  disapproved  of 
the  articles  themselves,  as  from  uneasiness  as  to  the  possible 
consequences  of  yielding  to  external  pressure  at  such  a  mo- 
mentous crisis  in  the  fortunes  of  the  Church.  Even  subordinate 
concessions,  he  argued,  if  made  in  the  face  of  danger,  and  for 
the  avowed  purpose  of  satisfying  heretics,  would  be  fatal  to  the 
principle  of  Pontifical  authority.  When  these  first  steps  had 
been  gained,  new  and  more  serious  aggressions  would  inevitably 
follow  in  their  train ;  and,  while  difficulties  increased,  the  means 
of  resistance  would  diminish  in  proportion.  Moreover,  there 
was  not  the  smallest  probability  that  the  Italian  members  of 
the  Council  would  ever  consent  to  innovations  of  this  kind  in 
the  existing  system  of  administration.  The  Pope,  therefore, 
now  made  it  his  chief  object  to  terminate  the  Council  with  as 
little  delay  as  possible ;  and  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  who  had 
lately  adopted  views  of  the  same  kind  from  motives  of  personal 
interest,  afforded  important  assistance  to  his  Holiness  in  effecting 
this  result. 

The  course  of  events  in  France,  since  the  outbreak  of  the 
civil  war,  had  been  such  as  to  encourage  the  Government  to 
hope  that  the  Huguenots  would  be  subdued  with  little  difficulty, 
and  that,  ere  long,  the  royal  authority  might  be  completely 
re-established.  The  battle  of  Dreux,  fought  on  the  9th  of 
December,  1562,  was  favourable  to  the  Catholic  cause.  Cathe- 
rine was  thus  enabled  to  negociate  on  advantageous  terms  with 
the  Protestant  leaders,  and  the  "  pacification  of  Amboise  "  was 
concluded  in  March,  1563.  It  had  a  curious  influence  on  the 
history  of  the  Council  of  Trent.  No  sooner  had  the  aspect  of 
affairs  brightened  at  home,  than  Catherine  and  her  ministers 
began  to  look  with  much  less  interest  on  the  proceedings  of 
that  distant  assembly,  from  which  they  no  longer  expected  any 
efficient  support.  They  now  attached  less  importance  to  the 
propositions  of  reform  which  at  first  had  been  so  vigorously 


A.D.  1563.  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT.  159 

insisted  on ;  and,  finding  that  the  fathers  were  not  likely  to 
accept  a  line  of  policy  dictated  by  the  necessities  of  France, 
they  instructed  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  to  turn  his  attention 
henceforth  to  the  means  of  satisfying  the  Pope,  and  to  co-operate 
with  the  legates  in  expediting  the  business  of  the  Council,  so 
that  it  might  be  dismissed  without  delay. 

The  Cardinal's  private  feelings  ran  in  the  same  direction.  He 
had  lately  sustained  a  cruel  loss  in  the  death  of  his  elder 
brother,  the  duke,  who  was  assassinated  by  a  fanatical  Huguenot 
at  the  siege  of  Orleans.  This  was  a  heavy  blow  to  the  ascendency 
of  his  family  in  France.  He  saw  that,  if  it  was  still  to  be  main- 
tained, the  best  way  to  promote  it  was  to  draw  as  closely  as 
possible  the  bonds  of  sympathy  between  himself,  the  Pope, 
the  King  of  Spain,  and  other  powers,  who  were  the  bulwarks 
of  Catholicism.  Under  such  circumstances  a  cordial  under- 
standing was  speedily  arrived  at  between  Pius  IV.  and  his 
Eminence  of  Lorraine.  The  latter  proceeded  to  Rome  on  the 
invitation  of  the  holy  Father,  and  was  received  with  unpre- 
cedented honour ;  he  was  lodged  in  the  Vatican,  and  the  Pope 
went  publicly  to  visit  him.  In  the  confidential  interviews  which 
followed,  Pius  ascertained  that  the  prelate,  whom  he  had  once 
imagined  to  be  a  dangerous  opponent,  might  be  easily  con- 
verted into  a  firm  and  zealous  ally.  A  treaty  to  that  effect  was 
soon  negociated ;  and  although  it  is  not  likely  that  its  details 
can  have  been  so  fully  divulged  as  Father  Paul  would  lead  us  to 
believe,  there  is  no  doubt  that  they  were  sufficiently  gratifying 
to  the  ambition  and  self-love  of  the  Cardinal.  The  Pope  hastened 
to  announce  to  the  legates  at  Trent  that  his  guest  had  gained 
his  entire  confidence.  Henceforward  they  were  to  treat  him 
as  a  colleague  in  authority,  and  to  do  nothing  without  his 
knowledge  and  approval.* 

To  return  to  the  Council.  The  legates,  with  whom  lay  the 
sole  prerogative  of  initiating  measures  for  consideration,  at 
length  brought  forward  a  scheme  of  reform,  embracing  thirty- 
eight  articles.  Its  most  remarkable  chapter  related  to  what 
was  called  "the  reformation  of  secular  princes;" — a  topic  of 
extreme  delicacy,  which  had  been  frequently  alluded  to  as 


*  Pallavicino,  Liv.  xxi.  chap.  2.    Contin.  de  Fkury,  Liv.  clxvi.  58. 


160  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  II. 

requiring  discussion,  and  which  was  proposed  at  this  moment  by 
way  of  attempting  to  counterbalance  and  neutralize  the  claims 
advanced  by  the  representatives  of  France.  This  famous 
chapter  consisted  of  various  provisions  for  correcting  and  re- 
straining the  jurisdiction  of  the  Crown  in  respect  of  the  Church 
and  its  ministers.  The  preamble  stated  that  the  holy  Synod 
had  thought  fit  to  renew  certain  ancient  enactments  in  favour 
of  ecclesiastical  immunity,  hoping  that  lay  sovereigns  would 
regard  them  with  respect,  and  cause  them  to  be  punctually 
observed,  considering  the  submission  which  they  themselves 
owed  to  the  Pope  and  to  the  Church.  The  chief  stipulations 
were  as  follows : — That  ecclesiastics  should  not  be  amenable  to 
secular  tribunals  for  any  cause,  or  under  any  pretext  whatsoever. 
That  the  Crown  should  cease  to  interfere  with  the  due  exercise 
of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Church  in  matters  spiritual ;  whether 
in  causes  of  matrimony,  heresy,  and  patronage,  or  in  the  tem- 
poral government  of  churches,  and  the  administration  of  Church 
property.  That  the  practice  of  "  appels  comme  d'abus  "  should 
be  abolished ;  and  that  any  one  resorting  to  the  civil  courts  in 
the  cases  specified  should  be  excommunicated,  and  incur  the 
forfeiture  of  their  rights.  That  the  temporal  judge  should  not 
be  authorized  to  inhibit  the  spiritual  judge  from  passing  sen- 
tence of  excommunication  without  his  permission,  nor  to  order 
him  to  revoke  or  suspend  any  such  sentence  already  pro- 
nounced. That  no  prince  or  lay  magistrate  should  make  promise 
of  the  presentation  to  any  benefice  within  their  territories,  nor 
procure  any  such  preferment  either  from  bishops  or  conventual 
chapters ;  any  such  presentation  to  be  ipso  facto  null  and  void. 
That  they  should  not  lay  hands  on  the  revenues  of  vacant 
benefices,  either  in  virtue  of  patronage  or  under  pretext  of 
appointing  stewards  or  substitutes  with  a  view  to  prevent  dis- 
putes. That  ecclesiastics  should  not  be  subject  to  the  payment 
of  taxes,  or  other  subsidies  under  the  name  of  gifts  or  loans, 
except  in  countries  where,  by  ancient  usage,  the  clergy  sit  in 
the  provincial  legislature  for  the  purpose  of  taxing  the  laity 
equally  with  their  own  order  in  case  of  war,  or  other  urgent 
necessity.  And  lastly,  that  all  ecclesiastical  sentences,  cita- 
tions, and  decrees,  particularly  those  emanating  from  the 
Court  of  Home,  should  be  at  once  published  and  executed, 


A.D.  15G3.  THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT.  1 61 

without  the  formality  of  seeking  consent  or  licence  from  the 
civil  power.* 

These  were  extravagant  pretensions ;  and  it  is  probable  that 
their  supporters  were  not  serious,  or  at  all  events  not  hopeful 
of  success,  in  attempting  to  force  them  on  the  acceptance  of  the 
Council.  The  object  of  the  move  was  to  create  a  diversion ; 
and  to  intimate  to  those  whom  it  might  concern,  that  reforma- 
tion is  a  question  which  has  two  sides — the  reformation  of  the 
clergy,  however  confessedly  important,  being  only  one  of  them. 
The  proceeding  was  keenly  resented  by  the  Court  of  France  ; 
the  young  king  denounced  it  to  his  ambassadors  as  an  attempt 
to  "  pare  the  nails  of  sovereigns,  while  it  lengthened  those  of 
the  priests."  He  ordered  them  to  protest  against  it  with  the 
utmost  vigour,  and  to  retire  from  the  Council  if  it  were  not  with- 
drawn. Upon  this,  Du  Terrier  put  forth  all  his  energies  in  a 
spirited  effort  of  remonstrance.f  He  recounted  the  exertions 
made  by  the  kings  of  France  for  ages  past  to  obtain  a  real  re- 
form of  the  Church  and  its  ministers,  and  showed  how  that 
work  had  hitherto  been  systematically  eluded.  His  master  was 
amazed,  he  said,  that  the  fathers  should  suggest  measures  which 
manifestly  tended  to  subvert  the  ancient  liberties  of  the  Gallican 
Church,!  and  to  injure  the  authority  of  the  Most  Christian  kings, 
who  had  made  laws  for  the  government  of  ecclesiastics  within 
their  own  dominions,  which  laws  had  been  approved  by  successive 
popes,  and  were  in  accordance  with  the  decrees  of  (Ecumenical 
Councils.  No  such  mighty  progress  had  as  yet  been  made  at 
Trent  in  the  work  of  reforming  the  Church,  that  the  Council 
should  overstep  its  proper  province,  and  undertake  the  cor- 
rection of  secular  magistrates.  He  went  on  to  criticize  in  detail 
the  acts  and  regulations  of  the  Council,  contrasting  them  sarcas- 
tically with  the  legislation  of  primitive  ages,  the  restoration  of 
which,  he  contended,  was  the  only  true  remedy  for  existing 
evils,  persistently  demanded  both  by  Church  and  State  in 
France.  In  fine,  Du  Ferrier  exhorted  the  assembled  fathers,  if 


*  Baynald.  Annal.,  torn.  xv.  p.  442.  arts    of   modern    politicians.      Would 

Fra  Paolo,  Liv.  viii.  §  53.      Cont.in.  de  Hincmar  and  St.  Bernard  have  thought 

Fleury,  Liv.  clxvi.  45.  it  worth  their  while  to  contend  for  the 

t  Contin.  de  Fleury,  Liv.  clxvi.  38.  liberty    of   the  Church,  if   they    had 

J  This  shows  how  completely  the  understood  it  in  the  sense  put  upon  it 

true  idea  of  "Gallican  liberty"   had  by  the  ambassador  of  Charles  IX.? 
been   perverted    and   falsified    by   the 

VOL.  I.  M 


162 


THE  GALLTCAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  II. 


they  desired  to  see  a  reform  among  princes,  to  begin  by  imitat- 
ing in  their  own  persons  those  great  prelates  of  old,  who,  by 
their  sanctity  and  self-devotion,  had  acquired  such  commanding 
influence  over  the  temporal  magnates  of  their  day.  The  surest 
way  to  reproduce  a  line  of  sovereigns  like  Theodosius,  Arcadius, 
Valentinian,  and  Gratian,  would  be  to  fill  the  high  places  of  the 
Church  with  a  line  of  bishops  rivalling  Ambrose  and  Augustine, 
Athanasius  and  Chrysostom. 

This  scene  took  place  during  the  absence  of  the  Cardinal  of 
Lorraine  on  his  visit  to  Borne.  The  Pope  complained  to  him 
bitterly  of  the  intemperate  and  offensive  tone  of  the  ambassador. 
The  Cardinal  did  his  best  to  excuse  it,  blamed  the  legates  for 
introducing  the  subject  so  inopportunely,  and  pledged  himself  to 
repair  the  mischief,  and  restore  a  good  understanding  among  all 
parties,  as  soon  as  he  returned  to  Trent.  From  that  moment, 
nevertheless,  the  feelings  which  prevailed  between  the  French 
Government  and  the  Council  were  those  of  settled  mistrust  and 
estrangement. 

The  ambassadors,  after  delivering  their  protest,  quitted  Trent 
and  repaired  to  Venice.  The  French  bishops  were  instructed 
to  remain,  and  offer  all  possible  opposition  to  the  further  pro- 
gress of  the  measure  which  had  given  such  provocation  to  their 
sovereign ;  but  in  case  of  any  fresh  invasion  of  the -royal  prero- 
gative or  the  Gallican  liberties,  they  too  were  to  absent  them- 
selves at  once,  without  waiting  for  explanation  or  entering  into 
longer  discussion.  Many  of  them  gladly  seized  this  opportu- 
nity to  abandon  the  Council  and  return  to  their  dioceses. 
Others  took  flight  in  different  directions ;  six  had  accompanied 
the  Cardinal  to  Home ;  no  more  than  eight  continued  at 
Trent.* 

The  decree  relating  to  princes,  when  proposed  for  recon- 
sideration, was  resisted  strenuously  by  all  the  ambassadors 
present ;  and  the  legates  found  it  useless  to  urge  it  further.  It 
was  postponed,  pro  'forma,  to  a  future  session ;  but  in  the  end  it 
was  dropped  altogether.! 

The  Pope,  on  this  occasion,  made  an  indiscreet  exhibition 
of  his  displeasure  against  the  party  which,  as  he  conceived,  had 


*  Contin.  de  Fleury,  Liv.  clxvi.  44. 
t  A  decree  of  the  same  character, 
however,  with  abridgments  and  modi- 


fications, was  passed  by  the  Council  in 
its  last  session.  Condi.  Trident.,  Seas. 
xxv.  cap.  20. 


A.D.  1563.  THE  COUNCIL  OP  TRENT.  163 

instigated  the  late  opposition  in  the  Council.  Some  time  pre- 
viously (in  order  to  mark  his  dissatisfaction  at  the  terms  of 
peace  granted  to  the  Huguenots)  he  had  cited  several  French 
bishops  suspected  of  favouring  heresy  to  appear  before  the 
tribunal  of  the  Inquisition  at  Rome ;  a  proceeding  grossly  in- 
consistent with  the  Galilean  usage,  which  provided  that  bishops 
should  be  tried  in  the  first  instance  before  the  metropolitan  and 
his  comprovincials  assembled  in  synod.*  On  the  22nd  of 
October,  1563,  sentence  of  deposition  or  suspension  was  pub- 
lished against  the  following  members  of  the  French  hierarchy, 
who  were  declared  contumacious  by  reason  of  non-appearance : 
the  Cardinal  de  Chatillon,  Bishop  of  Beauvais  ;t  St.  Komain, 
Archbishop  of  Aix ;  Montluc,  Bishop  of  Valence  ;  Caraccioli, 
Bishop  of  Troyes ;  Barbancon,  Bishop  of  Pamiers ;  Guillart, 
Bishop  of  Chartres ;  St.  Gelais,  Bishop  of  Uzes ;  and  D'Albret, 
Bishop  of  Lescar.  And  besides  inflicting  these  penalties  on 
ecclesiastics,  Pius  was  rash  enough  to  summon  the  Queen  of 
Navarre  to  the  bar  of  the  holy  Office,  there  to  answer  the  charge 
of  heresy,  under  pain  of  being  deprived  of  her  dominions. 
Jeanne  d'Albret  was  indeed  notoriously  a  Calvinist;  she  had 
prohibited  the  exercise  of  the  Catholic  religion  in  her  princi- 
pality of  Beam,  and  had  violently  expelled  the  priests  from  the 
churches,  replacing  them  by  ministers  of  her  own  persuasion. 
Yet  a  penal  process  of  this  nature  against  a  crowned  head,  so 
nearly  connected  with  the  royal  blood  of  France,  was  not  likely 
to  be  tamely  tolerated.  Charles  IX.  interfered  with  consider- 
able dignity  and  vigour.  He  gave  the  Pope  to  understand  that 
he  regarded  the  cause  of  the  Queen  of  Navarre  as  his  own  ;  he 
begged  his  Holiness  to  remember  that  his  spiritual  powers  were 
granted  for  the  edification  of  souls,  and  not  to  subserve  political 
ends ;  he  intreated  him  to  revoke  the  measures  taken  against 
the  Queen,  and  threatened,  in  case  they  were  persisted  in,  to 
resort  to  the  means  of  redress  which  his  ancestors  had  employed 
under  similar  circumstances.  He  protested,  likewise,  against  the 
infraction  of  the  Gallican  liberties  in  the  persons  of  the  con- 


*  Me'm.  du  CUrge"  de  France,  torn.  ii. 
pp.  422,  444,  456,  463. 

f  This  prelate  had  openly  joined  the 
Protestants,  and  had  married  a  lady  of 
Normandy,  Isabella  de  Hauteville,  who 


assumed  the  title  of  Comtesse  de  Beau- 
vais. Eventually  the  cardinal  was 
deprived  of  his  preferments,  and  retired 
to  England,  where  he  died  in  1571. 


M2 


164 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  II. 


demned  prelates.*  The  Pontiff,  who  was  not  prepared  for  such 
a  resolute  resistance,  found  it  necessary  to  give  way  ;  and, 
after  several  conferences  with  the  French  ambassador  at  Rome, 
signified  that  no  further  steps  would  be  taken,  either  in  the 
matter  of  the  Queen  of  Navarre,  or  as  to  the  execution  of 
the  sentence  passed  upon  the  bishops. 

The  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  returned  to  Trent  on  the  9th  of 
November ;  and  acted  thenceforward  as  the  Pope's  plenipoten- 
tiary for  carrying  into  effect  his  anxious  desire  to  close  the 
Council.  When  the  decrees  of  reformation  came  to  be  finally 
examined,  the  Cardinal  said  that,  although  he  could  have 
wished  that  the  restoration  of  discipline  had  been  more  exten- 
sive and  complete,  he  assented  to  the  acts  of  the  Council,  in  the 
hope  that  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  in  his  wisdom  would  supply 
whatever  might  be  wanting,  either  by  reviving  the  ancient  laws 
of  the  Church,  or  by  summoning  future  General  Councils. 

Little  of  importance  occurred  to  disturb  the  harmony  of  the 
twenty-fourth  and  twenty-fifth  sessions.  The  French  ambas- 
sadors remained  sullenly  at  Venice.  The  Cardinal  repeatedly 
urged  them  to  return,  reminding  them  that  the  objectionable 
decrees  had  been  greatly  modified  and  virtually  suppressed,  and 
pointing  out  how  injurious  it  might  be  to  the  character  both  of 
France  and  of  the  Council  if  the  final  transactions  of  such  an 
assembly  should  be  unsanctioned  by  the  presence  of  any  official 
delegate  from  the  "  eldest  son  of  the  Church."  They  replied, 
however,  that  they  were  acting  in  obedience  to  the  King's 
express  order  ;t  and  that,  independently  of  the  odious  chapter 
on  the  "reformation  of  princes,"  the  Council  had  made,  and 
was  about  to  publish,  various  other  regulations  repugnant  to 
the  rights  of  the  French  Crown  and  to  the  liberties  of  the 
Gallican  Church ;  so  that,  on  the  whole,  the  interests  of  France 
might  be  better  served  by  the  absence  of  the  royal  commis- 
sioners, than  by  their  presence. 

All  parties  at  Trent  being  now  agreed  as  to  the  policy  of  an 
immediate  termination  of  the  Council,  the  remaining  formalities 
were  despatched  with  almost  precipitate  haste.  The  fathers 


*  Fra  Paolo,  Liv.  viii.  §  67.     Contin. 
de  Fleury,  Liv.  clxvi.  63. 
t  The   letter    of   Charles   IX.,  ap- 


proving their  conduct,  is  given  in  Le 
Plat,  torn.  vi.  p.  287. 


A.D.  1563.  TERMINATION  OF  THE  COUNCIL.  165 

dutifully  petitioned  the  Pope  to  confirm  their  decrees;  they 
passed  a  general  declaration  that  all  the  acts  of  the  Council, 
from  its  commencement  under  Paul  III.  to  its  close,  were  to  be 
understood  "  without  prejudice  to  the  authority  of  the  Apostolic 
See;"  and  they  assigned  to  the  Pope  the  exclusive  power  of 
interpreting  the  decrees,  and  of  providing  for  any  difficulties 
that  might  arise  with  regard  to  their  reception  by  the  States  of 
Christendom.*  The  altered  current  of  feeling  in  the  Council, 
occasioned  by  the  conversion  of  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  and  the 
withdrawal  of  so  many  of  the  G-allican  bishops,  is  signally 
apparent  in  these  last  enactments.  Six  months  previously,  the 
opposition  to  Ultramontanism  was  so  powerful  that  a  proposal 
to  assert  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope  as  the  chief  pastor  and 
ruler  of  the  Church  had  been  negatived  as  impracticable.  Now, 
the  entire  legislation  of  the  Council  was  surrendered  to  the  un- 
controlled arbitration  of  the  Holy  See  ;  and  an  implied  sanction 
was  thereby  given  to  the  dogma  which  the  Church  of  other 
days  had  so  emphatically  rejected,  that  the  Roman  Pontiff  is 
superior  to  G-eneral  Councils. 

The  privileges  thus  liberally  accorded  were  turned  to  the 
utmost  advantage  at  Borne.  In  the  bull  of  confirmation,  dated 
January  26,  1564,  the  Pope  prohibited  all  persons  ecclesiastical 
and  civil,  of  whatever  rank  or  dignity,  from  publishing  any 
comments,  glosses,  annotations,  or  interpretations,  concerning 
the  acts  and  decrees  of  the  Council,  without  his  permission, 
under  pain  of  excommunication  ipso  fado.\  If  in  any  case 
interpretation  might  seem  necessary,  it  was  to  be  sought  from 
the  Apostolic  See,  "the  mistress  of  all  the  faithful,  whose 
authority  had  been  so  recently  acknowledged  by  the  Holy 
Synod  itself."  "  All  such  difficulties,"  said  Pius,  "  we  reserve 
to  be  by  us  explained  and  decided,  being  prepared  to  provide 
for  the  necessities  of  all  the  provinces,  in  such  manner  as  we 
shall  judge  most  convenient ;  ordaining  that  whatever  may  be 
attempted  to  the  contrary  with  respect  to  these  matters,  by  any 
person  or  authority  whatsoever,  is  null  and  void."  A  congrega- 
tion of  eight  cardinals  was  afterwards  appointed  for  the  purpose 
of  enforcing  the  due  observance  of  the  Tridentine  decrees. 

The  Council  terminated  its  labours  on  the  4th  of  December, 

*  Contin.  de  Fleury,  Liv.  clxviii.  6. 

t  See  the  bull  "  Benedictus  Deus,"  in  Labbe,  Condi.,  torn.  xiv.  p.  939. 


166  THE  GALLICAN  CHUECH.  CHAP.  II. 

1563  ;  on  which  occasion  the  customary  acclamations  were  pro- 
nounced by  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  according  to  a  form  com- 
posed by  himself.  Two  hundred  and  fifty-five  prelates  subscribed 
the  decrees ;  but  of  this  number  only  seven  were  representatives 
of  the  Galilean  Church. 

No  sooner  had  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  returne  1  to  France, 
than  he  was  attacked  in  various  quarters  for  having  sanctioned, 
in  the  later  sessions  at  Trent,  decisions  incompatible  with  the 
laws  of  the  land,  the  dignity  of  the  sovereign,  and  the  liberties 
of  the  Gallican  Church.  He  defended  himself  by  referring  to 
a  formal  protest  which  he  had  delivered  in  the  twenty-fourth 
session,  expressing  his  assent  to  the  acts  of  the  Council  with  a 
distinct  reservation  of  all  rights  and  privileges,  ecclesiastical 
and  civil,  appertaining  both  to  Church  and  State  in  France.* 
Besides  which,  as  he  observed  with  much  justice,  it  was  absurd 
to  expect  that,  with  no  more  than  six  of  his  countrymen  to  back 
him,  he  could  withstand  with  effect  an  assembly  of  upwards 
of  two  hundred  bishops. 

The  Nunoio  Santa  Croce  now  applied  to  the  Government  to 
promulgate  an  official  announcement  of  the  reception  of  the 
Council,  according  to  the  forms  of  the  constitution.  Upon 
this  the  King  called  a  meeting  of  the  heads  of  the  Parlia- 
ment and  other  great  functionaries,  to  consider  what  course 
should  be  taken.  There  was  a  sharp  altercation  on  this 
occasion  between  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  and  the  Chancellor 
de  1'H.opital,  who  still  held  the  post  of  chief  adviser  of  the 
Crown.  The  Chancellor  strongly  advocated  the  expediency  of 
postponing  for  the  present  any  public  recognition  of  the  Council ; 
remarking  that,  since  many  points  of  importance,— for  instance, 
the  usage  of  the  Cup  in  the  Eucharist, — had  been  referred  to 
the  decision  of  the  Pope,  it  was  desirable  to  wait,  at  least,  until 
his  Holiness  should  make  known  his  judgment  upon  these 
particulars.  The  Cardinal  replied  angrily.  He  did  not  know, 
he  said,  what  religion  the  Chancellor  really  belonged  to ;  but  it 
seemed  as  if  he  had  none  other  than  that  of  doing  all  the 
injury  he  could  to  himself  and  the  house  of  Guise — a  line  of 
conduct  grossly  ungrateful  to  those  who  had  been  his  earliest 
friends  and  benefactors.  De  1'Hopital  replied  by  declaring  that 

*  See  the  Cardinal's  protest  in  Le  Plat,  torn.  vi.  p.  290. 


A.D.  1563.        CONTESTED  DECREES  OF  THE  COUNCIL.  167 

he  could  never  forget  his  many  and  deep  obligations  to  his 
Eminence  of  Lorraine ;  but  that  he  must  beg  to  be  excused 
from  discharging  them  at  the  expense  of  the  honour  and  interest 
of  his  sovereign.  The  Queen  interposed  to  stop  the  dispute; 
and  the  Council  adjourned  without  making  any  order  as  to  the 
reception  of  the  decrees  of  Trent.* 

The  demand  was  repeated  again  and  again  with  increased 
earnestness ;  and  was  evaded  for  some  time  upon  similar  pre- 
texts. But  at  length  it  became  necessary  to  speak  distinctly  ; 
and  the  Parliament  of  Paris  announced  that  the  Council  of 
Trent  could  not  be  publicly  received  without  prejudicing  the 
rights  of  the  Crown  and  the  liberties  of  the  Gallican  Church. 
The  principal  points  specified  on  the  first  head  were  the  follow- 
ing:— 1.  The  decree  against  duels  ;f  by  which  princes  permit- 
ting such  encounters  to  take  place  in  their  territories  were 
excommunicated,  and,  moreover,  were  deprived  of  the  lordship 
of  the  town,  chateau,  or  other  spot  in  which  the  duel  may  have 
been  fought.  2.  The  decree  authorizing  the  Pope  to  appoint 
bishops  in  the  room  of  those  who  might  persist,  after  monition, 
in  remaining  absent  from  their  dioceses ;  J — an  arrangement 
clearly  contrary  to  the  Concordat.  3.  The  decree  empowering 
ecclesiastical  judges  to  impose  pecuniary  fines  upon  laymen, 
and  to  compel  payment  by  imprisonment,  if  necessary,  making 
use  of  their  own  officers  for  the  purpose.  §  4.  That  which  placed 
all  public  hospitals  under  the  visitation  and  control  of  the 
bishops.  ||  5.  That  by  which  the  bishops  were  authorized  to 
compel  the  inhabitants  of  any  place  to  provide  a  sufficient 
stipend  for  the  parish  priest,  and  to  make  all  necessary  repairs 
in  parish  churches.H 

The  articles  objected  to  as  infringing  the  Gallican  liberties 
were  those  by  which  criminal  causes  affecting  bishops  were 
reserved  to  the  sole  cognizance  of  the  Pope,  in  contravention 
of  the  ancient  discipline,  which  made  them  amenable  in  the 
first  instance  to  the  Metropolitan  and  the  Provincial  Council ; 
also,  the  right  assigned  to  the  Pope  of  evoking  to  Home 
ecclesiastical  causes  which  may  be  pending  before  the  ordinary 


*  Sainte  Croix  to  Cardinal  Borromeo,  February  25,  1564.    Archives  Curieuses 
de  I'H.  de  F.,  torn.  vi.  p.  155. 

t  Sess.  xxv.  cap.  19.  J  Sess.  vi.  cap.  1.                 §  Sess.  xxv.  cap.  3. 

i|  Sess.  vii.  cap.  15.  *|  Sess.  xxiv.  cap.  13. 


168 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  II. 


judges.*  The  Parliament  disapproved,  moreover,  the  regulation 
allowing  the  Pope  to  grant  pensions  and  "  reserves  des  fruits," 
chargeable  on  benefices ;  and  that  permitting  the  Mendicant 
Orders  to  hold  corporate  property  .f 

The  celebrated  advocate  Charles  Dumoulin,  being  consulted 
for  his  opinion  on  the  Tridentine  decrees,  drew  up  and  published 
a  statement  containing  a  long  catalogue  of  reasons  which  made 
it  impossible,  in  his  judgment,  that  the  Council  should  be 
received  in  France.  These  grounds  of  exception  relate  in  some 
few  instances  to  doctrine ;  but  the  author  chiefly  animadverts 
upon  the  canons  of  discipline,  many  of  which  he  declares  to 
be  at  variance  with  the  ancient  Councils, — derogatory  to  the 
rights  of  the  king,  the  authority  of  his  edicts  and  those  of  the 
courts  of  justice, — as  well  as  contrary  to  the  liberties  and  im- 
munities of  the  National  Church.^ 

Dumoulin  was,  unfortunately,  a  seceder  from  the  Church ; 
and  his  exposition  of  constitutional  law  was  in  some  particulars 
tinctured  too  strongly  by  his  known  religious  partialities.  His 
enemies  denounced  him  to  the  Parliament,  on  the  ground  that 
his  publication  had  been  made  without  the  king's  permission, 
and  that  he  had  compromised  the  Government  by  pretending 
that  it  was  put  forth  by  order  of  the  Council  of  State.  Upon 
this  he  was  severely  interrogated  by  the  magistrates  as  to  the 
views  expressed  in  his  writings ;  which  he  could  not  deny  to  be 
substantially  those  of  the  Protestants.  The  Parliament,  while 
strenuously  Gallican,  was  rigid  in  its  abhorrence  of  heresy ;  and 
in  consequence,  although  Dumoulin's  conclusions  agreed  with 
their  own  as  to  the  inadmissibility  of  the  decrees  above  specified, 
they  committed  him  without  scruple  to  the  Conciergerie.  He 
was  soon  released  by  the  King's  orders,  no  doubt  through  the 
interference  of  De  1'Hopital ; — promising,  as  the  conditions  of 
his  liberty,  that  he  would  publish  nothing  in  future  on  political 
or  theological  questions,  and  that  he  would  carefully  avoid 
speculations  on  the  authority  of  Councils  and  of  the  Apostolic 
See,  which  might  occasion  scandal  to  his  Majesty's  subjects.§ 


*  Sess.  xiii.  cap.  8 ;  xxiv.  cap.  5 ; 
cap.  20. 

t  Fra  Paolo,  Ljv.  viii.  §  86. 

;  See  this  important  document  in 
the  M&moires  de  Condtf,  torn.  v.  p.  81  et 


§  De  Thou,  Sid.  Univ.,  Liv.  xxxvi. 
Charles  Dumoulin  shortly  afterwards 
returned  to  the  communion  of  the 
Church,  and  died  a  Catholic  in  1566. 


A.D.  1565.  PROVINCIAL  SYNODS  IN  FRANCE.  169 

Special  instances  for  the  reception  of  the  Council  in  France 
were  made  in  the  year  1565,  by  a  joint  embassy  from  the  Pope, 
the  King  of  Spain,  and  the  Duke  of  Savoy.  But  Charles  IX., 
under  the  direction  of  his  mother  and  De  1'Hopital,  returned  an 
ambiguous  response,  from  which  it  was  gathered  that,  while  he 
was  anxious  not  to  offend  the  great  Catholic  Powers,  he  had 
determined  to  adjourn  indefinitely  a  measure  which  would  have 
been  treated  by  the  Huguenots  as  almost  equivalent  to  a  decla- 
ration of  war.  * 

The  French  bishops,  however,  obtained  authority  from  the 
Government  to  give  effect  within  their  dioceses  to  those  of  the 
Tridentiue  canons  which  were  not  repugnant  to  the  laws  and 
constitutions  of  the  realm.  For  this  purpose  the  Cardinal  of 
Lorraine  convoked  without  delay  a  provincial  synod  at  Eeims, 
at  which  a  series  of  decrees  were  passed  in  exact  conformity  with 
those  of  Trent,  and  the  clergy  were  ordered  to  provide  them- 
selves with  copies  of  the  acts  of  the  Council  in  French  and 
Latin,  and  to  regulate  their  teaching  and  conduct  by  that 
standard.f  At  the  provincial  Council  of  Cambrai,  held  in  the 
following  year,  the  decrees  were  accepted  as  the  authoritative 
law  of  the  Church,  and  the  Confession  of  Faith  prescribed  in 
the  Pope's  bull  of  November,  1564  (commonly  called  the  Creed 
of  Pope  Pius  IV.),  was  signed  by  all  the  prelates  and  deputies 
of  the  clergy  present.  Similar  measures  were  taken  subsequently 
by  the  Metropolitans  of  Rouen,  Tours,  Bordeaux,  Aix,  Bourges, 
and  Toulouse.  But  it  must  not  be  imagined  that  this  ecclesi- 
astical recognition  of  the  Council  gave  to  its  enactments  the 
character  and  force  of  statute  law  in  France.  The  approbation 
of  the  Church  (though  even  this  was  subject  to  certain  limita- 
tions) made  them  canonically  binding  on  the  clergy  ;  but  they 
were  not  on  that  account  placed  on  the  same  footing  with  those 
laws  which  the  executive  authority  undertook  to  enforce  upon 
all  classes  of  French  subjects.  In  order  to  be  embodied  with 
the  national  legal  code,  it  was  requisite  that  the  Council  should 
be  accepted  by  the  sovereign,  sanctioned  by  the  Council  of  State, 
and  registered  by  the  Parliament — the  constitutional  guardian 
of  the  laws  of  the  kingdom. 

To  obtain  for  the  Tridentine  decrees  this  universally  coercive 


*  De  Thou,  Liv.  xxxvi.  t  Labbe  and  Cossart,  torn.  xv.  p.  43. 


170  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  II. 

jurisdiction  was  an  object  which  the  Gallicau  Church  pursued 
through  many  generations  with  indefatigable  zeal;  but  inva- 
riably without  success.  The  "  remonstrances  "  of  the  Assem- 
blies of  the  clergy,  in  1567,  1577,  1579,  1582,  1585,  1588, 
and  1596,  and  on  other  occasions,  were  met  with  the  stereo- 
typed reply,  that  it  was  judged  inexpedient,  for  reasons  of  state 
which  had  been  often  cited,  to  proceed  to  any  official  publi- 
cation of  the  Council.  Nor  has  any  such  ratification  of  its 
authority  by  the  civil  power  been  granted  in  France  from  that 
day  to  the  present.  In  regard  to  doctrine,  the  definitions  of 
Trent  constitute  the  law  of  the  Church,  as  in  all  other  branches 
of  the  Roman  obedience;  many  of  its  decrees  of  discipline, 
moreover,  have  been  carried  into  execution  by  the  Gallican  pre- 
lates, as  salutary  in  themselves,  and  clearly  in  accordance  with 
the  spirit  of  the  ancient  canons ;  but  neither  its  doctrine  nor 
its  discipline  has  ever  been  incorporated  by  the  State  with  the 
body  of  national  law. 

It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  such  a  policy  was  inconsistent  with 
that  high  profession  of  Catholicism  upon  which  the  French 
monarchy  had  been  wont  to  pride  itself,  as  one  of  its  essential 
characteristics,  from  the  earliest  records  of  its  history.  For, 
after  all,  the  Council  of  Trent  was  either  a  legitimate  assembly 
of  the  Western  Church  by  representation,  or  it  was  not.  If  it  was 
not,  why  did  France  recognize  and  deal  with  it  as  such  ?  Why 
send  ambassadors  to  attend  its  sessions?  Why  appeal  to  its 
judgment,  and  seek  its  support  under  the  complicated  political 
difficulties  of  the  time?  But  if  it  was  a  legitimate  Council, 
upon  what  principle  was  its  authority  questioned  and  its  deci- 
sions disallowed  ?  Philip  of  Spain  was  consistent  in  accepting 
the  Council ;  the  Lutherans  and  Huguenots  and  Anglicans  were 
consistent,  according  to  their  light,  in  rejecting  it ;  but  where 
was  the  consistency  of  the  "  eldest  son  of  the  Church  "  ? 

That  this  anomalous  behaviour  on  the  part  of  the  French 
Government  admits  of  sufficient  explanation,  is  abundantly 
evident  from  the  facts  which  have  been  placed  before  the  reader 
in  the  course  of  the  foregoing  narrative.  But  we  cannot  be 
surprised  to  find  that  that  explanation  was  anything  but  satis- 
factory to  the  great  majority  of  the  Gallican  clergy.  In  their 
eyes,  the  refusal  to  publish  the  Council  of  Trent  was  scarcely 
less  odious  than  the  suppression  of  the  right  of  free  election  by 


A.D.  1565.          ENFORCEMENT  OP  THE  CONCORDAT.  171 

the  provisions  of  the  Concordat.  It  seemed  as  if  the  Govern- 
ment were  bent  upon  adding  wantonly  to  their  mortification. 
The  Concordat,  detested  by  the  clergy  as  having  deprived  them 
of  the  most  cherished  privilege  of  their  order,  was  rigidly  en- 
forced by  the  Crown  to  its  very  letter;  while  the  Tridentine 
code,  which  the  Church  regarded  as  the  charter  of  its  restored 
liberties — the  Palladium  of  its  authority — was,  for  that  reason 
and  no  other,  jealously  disavowed  and  discountenanced.  This 
fresh  grievance  was  keenly  irritating  to  all  Catholics  who  had 
not  been  corrupted  by  covetousness  and  the  blandishments  of 
court  favour.  It  was  a  germ  of  strife,  which  proved  cala- 
mitously fruitful  during  the  subsequent  convulsions  of  the 
"  League." 


THE  GALLICAN  CHUKCH.  CHAP.  III. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE  famous  association  known  as  the  "  Catholic  League,"  or 
"  Holy  Union,"  took  its  rise  from  the  strangely  indulgent  terms 
granted  to  the  Huguenots  by  the  "Peace  of  Monsieur,"  in 
April,  1576.  Four  years  had  scarcely  elapsed  since  the  blood- 
stained Eve  of  St.  Bartholomew.  It  had  been  hoped  that  by 
means  of  that  execrable  crime  the  Reformation  would  have 
been  finally  crushed  and  extinguished  in  France ;  but  instead 
of  this,  a  treaty  was  concluded  with  the  heretics,  which  placed 
them  in  a  more  favourable  situation  than  they  had  ever  occu- 
pied before.  The  free  exercise  of  their  religion  throughout  the 
kingdom,  with  the  exception  of  Paris  and  the  actual  residence 
of  the  sovereign ;  permission  to  hold  synods,  provided  that  an 
officer  of  the  Crown  was  always  present ;  the  establishment  of 
"  chambres  mi-parties  "  in  the  Parliaments,  to  take  cognizance 
of  all  causes  between  Protestants  and  Catholics;  the  legal 
recognition  of  the  marriage  of  priests  and  monks  who  had 
seceded  from  the  Church  to  the  Calvinist  communion ;  and  the 
concession  of  certain  cautionary  towns,  to  be  held  for  a  specific 
time  by  Huguenot  officers  and  troops ;  such  were  the  conditions 
imposed  upon  the  Crown  by  this  remarkable  act  of  pacification.* 
We  cannot  wonder  that  it  was  regarded  by  the  majority  of 
Catholics  as  a  wicked  and  cowardly  betrayal  of  their  most  sacred 
interests.  They  ascribed  it  to  its  true  source,  namely,  the 
hopeless  incapacity  of  the  reigning  monarch,  Henry  III. ;  a 
prince  whose  monstrous  vices  and  gross  misgovernment  were 
destined  to  reduce  France  to  a  state  of  disorganization  bordering 
on  national  rum. 

The  idea  of  a  general  confederation  of  Catholics  for  the  defence 
of  the  Faith  against  the  inroads  of  heresy  had  been  suggested  by 
the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  during  the  Council  of  Trent,  and  had 
been  favourably  entertained  at  the  Court  of  Eome.f  The  Duke 

*  De  Thou,  Liv.  Ixii.     L'Estoile,  Journal  de  Henri  III.,  torn.  i.  p.  133. 
t  Contin.  de  Fleury,  Liv.  clxxiv.  62. 


A.D.  1576.  CATHOLIC  LEAGUE.  173 

of  Guise  was  to  have  been  placed  at  the  head  of  this  alliance ; 
but  his  sudden  death  changed  the  face  of  affairs,  and  the  pro- 
ject fell  into  abeyance.  The  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  was  now  no 
more;  he  died  at  Avignon,  at  the  age  of  fifty,  in  December, 
1574  ;  on  which  occasion  the  Queen  Mother,  imagining  that  the 
event  would  destroy  for  ever  the  ascendency  of  the  house  of 
Guise,  congratulated  herself  and  those  around  her,  that  "hence- 
forth there  would  be  peace  in  France."  *  She  miscalculated. 
Henry,  the  third  Duke  of  Guise,  inherited  in  their  fullest 
extent  the  ambition,  the  religious  ardour,  the  lofty  political 
aspirations,  the  enterprising  spirit,  the  personal  popularity,  of 
his  predecessors.  The  League  of  1576  was  conceived  entirely 
in  his  interest.  He  was  the  leader  naturally  pointed  out  for 
such  a  movement; — a  movement  which,  although  its  ulterior 
objects  were  at  first  studiously  concealed,  aimed  in  reality  at 
substituting  the  family  of  Lorraine  for  that  of  Yalois  on  the 
throne  of  France. 

The  designs  of  the  confederates,  as  set  forth  in  the  original 
manifesto  which  was  circulated  for  signature,  seemed  at  first 
sight  highly  commendable,  both  with  regard  to  religion  and 
politics.  According  to  this  document,  the  Union  was  formed 
for  three  great  purposes :  to  uphold  the  Catholic  Church ;  to 
suppress  heresy;  and  to  maintain  the  honour,  the  authority, 
and  prerogatives  of  the  Most  Christian  king  and  his  successors. 
On  closer  examination,  however,  expressions  were  detected  which 
hinted  at  less  constitutional  projects.  "  Many  good  Catholics," 
says  Palma-Cayet,  "  saw  that  underneath  these  articles  there  lay 
hid  something  which  was  likely  to  produce  infinite  trouble  and 
division  in  France."  f  Thus,  for  instance,  it  was  provided  that 
if  any  of  the  confederates  should  be  attacked  or  molested,  the 
Union  was  bound  to  defend  them,  even  by  force  of  arms,  against 
any  and  all  persons  whatsoever.  Again,  the  head  of  the  League, 

*  Pierre"  de  L'Estoile,  Journal    de  et  toutefois  temoignee  de  tous  ceux  qui 

Henri  III.,  torn.  i.  p.   109  (Petitot's  lui  assistirent."     Catherine  is  said  to 

Collection).    The  Cardinal  died  of  a  I  have  been  disturbed  more  than  once  by 

fever  brought  on  by  exposure  to  the  !  spectral   apparitions    of   the  departed 

weather  during  a  religious  procession,  j  prelate.     Mezerai,    however,    gives    a 

"  La  maladie,"  says  L'Estoile,  "  etoit  |  different  account  of  the    causes    and 

au  cerveau,  et  jusqu'a  la  fin  il  ne  savoit  circumstances  of  his  death. — Hist,  du 

ce  qu'il  disoit  et  faisoit ;  mourant  en  Rtfgne  de  Henri  III.,  torn.  i.  p.  114, 115. 

grand  trouble  et  inquietude  d'esprit,  t  Palma-Cayet,  Introduction  to  the 


invoquant  meme  les  diables    sur  ses 
derniers  soupirs;   chose  epouvartfable, 


Chronologie  Novenaire   (Petitot's   Col- 
lection, torn,  xxxviii.  p.  257.) 


174  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  III. 

who  was  not  yet  named,  was  to  exercise  absolute  authority  over 
all  the  members ;  any  one  refusing  to  obey  him  was  to  be 
punished  as  he  might  direct.  He  was  to  be  the  sole  judge  of 
any  dispute  which  might  arise  in  the  society ;  and  no  one  was 
to  resort  to  the  ordinary  course  of  justice  without  his  permis- 
sion. Moreover,  all  persons  refusing  to  join  the  Union  were  to 
be  treated  as  enemies,  and  encountered  sword  in  hand. 

From  this  significant,  though  mysterious,  language  we  may 
gather  that  the  Leaguers  contemplated  from  the  first  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  central  power  independent  of  the  sovereign,  and 
foreign  to  the  constitution.  But  their  secret  aims  became 
incontestably  manifest  soon  afterwards,  when  one  of  their  con- 
fidential agents,  an  advocate  named  David,  happened  to  die 
suddenly  on  his  return  from  Borne,  and  his  papers  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  Huguenots,  who  immediately  made  them 
public.  Their  contents  were  of  so  extravagant  and  dangerous 
a  nature,  that  at  first  they  were  considered  to  be  forgeries ; 
but  their  genuineness  was  established  beyond  question  by 
a  despatch  received  by  Henry  III.  from  his  ambassador  at 
Madrid,  enclosing  a  copy  of  the  most  important  of  these  docu- 
ments, which  had  been  forwarded  to  the  King  of  Spain.*  A 
change  of  dynasty  in  France  was  the  avowed  object  of  the 
scheme  thus  disclosed.  It  set  forth,  in  substance,  that  the 
Capetian  monarchs  were  usurpers, — the  throne  belonging  right- 
fully to  the  house  of  Lorraine  as  the  lineal  descendants  of 
Charlemagne.  The  Divine  malediction  had  pursued  the  intru- 
sive princes  from  generation  to  generation.  Some  had  been 
deprived  of  reason ;  some  had  died  in  captivity  ;  others  hud 
been  visited  with  the  heaviest  censures  of  the  Church.  Their 
continual  embroilments  with  the  Holy  See  had  given  birth  to 
the  damnable  form  of  error  commonly  called  the  "  Liberty  of 
the  Gallican  Church,"  which,  in  point  of  fact,  was  a  mere  screen 
for  heresy.  The  late  peace,  so  advantageous  to  the  Calvinists, 
would  have  the  effect  of  establishing  that  sect  permanently  in 
France,  unless  the  opportunity  were  seized  to  restore  the  crown 
to  its  legitimate  owners.  To  this  end  the  clergy  must  denounce, 
both  in  the  pulpit  and  the  confessional,  the  concessions  just 
made  to  the  sectaries,  and  excite  the  people  to  oppose  their  execu- 


*  DeThou,  Liv.-lxiii. 


A.D.  1576.  OBJECTS  OF  THE  LEAGUE.  175 

tion.  Lists  must  be  drawn  up  by  the  parish  priests  throughout 
the  kingdom  of  all  persons  capable  of  bearing  arms,  and  they 
should  be  prepared  to  take  part  in  a  general  rising  in  defence 
of  the  Catholic  religion,  under  the  leadership  of  the  Duke  of 
Guise.  Every  effort  must  be  made  to  secure,  in  the  States- 
General  about  to  be  held  at  Blois,  a  preponderance  of  members 
solemnly  pledged  to  the  cause  of  the  League.  The  articles  of 
the  engagement  to  be  subscribed  by  them  should  be  submitted 
to  the  Pope,  and  embodied,  under  the  sanction  of  his  Holiness, 
in  a  formal  covenant  to  be  entered  into  between  the  see  of  Eome 
and  the  French  nation.  Any  prince  of  the  blood  opposing  the 
proceedings  of  the  States-should  be  declared  incapable  of 
succeeding  to  the  throne  ;  if  in  a  lower  rank,  they  should  be 
banished  from  the  realm,  and  their  property  confiscated.  The 
three  orders  of  the  States-General  should  make  a  public 
profession  of  allegiance  to  the  Pontiff  and  the  ancient  Church ; 
they  should  promulgate  the  Council  of  Trent ;  they  should  ab- 
solutely revoke  all  edicts  favourable  to  heresy.  The  king  was 
to  be  requested  to  name  the  Duke  of  Guise  Lieutenant-General 
of  the  kingdom.  The  League  being  thus  put  in  possession  of  the 
supreme  command  of  the  royal  forces,  the  Duke  of  Alen^on  * 
was  to  be  tried  for  high  treason  as  an  abettor  of  heretics  and 
rebels,  and  decisive  measures  were  to  be  taken  for  the  total 
suppression  and  abolition  of  the  "Pretended  Keformed  Eeli- 
gion."  After  this  the  Duke  of  Guise,  with  the  advice  and 
permission  of  the  Pope,  was  to  imprison  Henry  for  the  rest  of 
his  days  in  a  monastery,  after  the  example  of  his  ancestor 
Pepin  when  he  dethroned  the  Merovingian  Childeric.  Lastly, 
the  heir  of  the  Carlovingians  \vas  to  be  proclaimed  King  of 
France ;  and,  on  assuming  the  crown,  was  to  make  such  arrange- 
ments with  his  Holiness  as  would  secure  the  complete  recog- 
nition of  the  sovereignty  of  the  Vicar  of  Christ,  by  abrogating 
for  ever  the  so-called  "  liberties  of  the  Gallican  Church."  f 

Such  were  the  particulars  of  this  revolutionary  plot ; — a  plot 
which,  unhappily,  was  viewed  with  cordial  sympathy,  and  sup- 
ported with  enthusiastic  zeal,  by  many  of  the  prelates,  and  a  large 
majority  of  the  parochial  clergy,  of  France.  It  was  a  line  of 
conduct  widely  at  variance  with  the  principles  and  traditions 

*  "  Monsieur,"  the  King's  brother. 

t  M&moires  de  la  Ligue,  torn.  i.  p.  5-7.  Anquetil,  Esprit  de  la  Ligue,  torn.  ii.  p.  177. 


176  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  III. 

of  their  order;  but  if  revolt  from  a  lawful  sovereign  is  ever 
justifiable  by  the  pressure  of  exceptional  circumstances,  some 
excuse  may  be  found  for  it  in  the  state  of  the  French  court  and 
government  during  the  disgraceful  reign  of  Henry  III. 

Not  only  had  the  king  made  himself  personally  odious  by  his 
life  of  shameless  profligacy,  but  the  Church  had  been  subjected 
of  late  years  to  a  series  of  provocations  which  had  seriously 
shaken  its  ancient  loyalty.  The  right  of  patronage  acquired 
by  the  Concordat  was  more  and  more  scandalously  abused. 
Every  rule  of  discipline  was  outraged  by  the  practice  of  be- 
stowing bishoprics  and  abbeys  upon  laymen  and  others  noto- 
riously disqualified  ;  so  that  it  had  become  the  exception,  rather 
than  the  rule,  for  a  bishop  to  reside  in  his  diocese  and  dis- 
charge his  pastoral  duties.  Again,  the  taxes  levied  on  the 
clergy  had  increased  to  an  intolerable  extent.  Besides  defraying, 
on  behalf  of  the  Government,  the  whole  of  the  annuities  called 
"  rentes  de  1'Hotel  de  Ville,"  they  had  been  mulcted  to  the 
amount  of  sixty  millions  of  livres  (upwards  of  600,000?.)  be- 
tween 1560  and  1576,  in  extraordinary  subsidies.  Added  to 
this,  the  Church  had  been  deeply  wronged  by  repeated  aliena- 
tion of  its  landed  property.  Charles  IX.  extorted  from  the 
clergy  in  this  manner  an  annual  revenue  of  50,000  crowns  in 
1563.  A  similar  act  of  confiscation,  sanctioned  by  a  bull  of 
Pius  V.,  took  place  in  1568,  a  proviso  being  added  on  this  oc- 
casion by  his  Holiness,  that  the  money  should  be  employed  in 
prosecuting  the  war  against  the  heretics.  A  third  alienation, 
to  the  amount  of  50,000  crowns  of  income,  was  submitted  to 
in  1576.  It  was  the  soreness  arising  from  these  and  other  ag- 
gressions of  the  temporal  power  which  led  to  the  importunate 
demands  of  the  French  synods  for  the  promulgation  of  the 
Council  of  Trent ;  and  the  pertinacious  refusal  of  that  boon  by 
the  Government  became  a  further  grievance  which  was  bitterly 
resented.  The  lenient  treatment  of  the  heretics  contrasted 
vexatiously  with  the  harshness  and  rapacity  thus  shown  to  the 
dominant  communion.  By  the  treaty  of  1576  the  Protestants 
were  placed,  in  respect  both  of  civil  and  religious  lights,  almost, 
if  not  altogether,  on  an  equal  footing  with  Catholics ;  a  stretch 
of  liberality  unprecedented  in  France,  and  deemed  by  many  to 
be  a  grave  infraction  of  the  fundamental  laws  of  the  realm. 
The  exclusive  profession  and  maintenance  of  the  Catholic  reli- 


A.D.  1585.  ARGUMENTS  OF  THE  LEAGUE.  177 

gion,  it  was  contended,  was  not  only  a  "  law  of  the  king," — not 
a  mere  ordonnance  of  any  individual  sovereign — but  "  a  law 
of  the  kingdom  ;  "  an  enactment,  that  is,  of  the  three  Estates  of 
the  national  legislature,  and  one  which  could  not  be  repealed 
but  by  the  same  authority.  The  king  was  not  entitled  to  claim 
allegiance  from  his  subjects  until  he  had  bound  himself,  by  his 
coronation  oath,  to  observe  this  statute ;  it  was  upon  this  abso- 
lute indefeasible  condition  that  he  held  his  crown.*  The 
position  now  yielded  to  the  Separatists,  therefore,  was  a  breach 
of  the  original  compact  made  between  the  French  crown  and 
the  French  people,  when  Clovis  was  baptized  and  solemnly 
anointed  by  S.  Kemi.  The  reigning  monarch,  it  was  evident, 
could  not  fulfil  the  essential  purposes  for  which  his  office 
existed  ;  he  could  not  efficiently  protect  the  one  Apostolic  faith 
of  the  one  Apostolic  Church.  Under  such  circumstances  what 
was  the  duty  of  good  subjects  ?  Ought  they  not  to  take  counsel 
and  band  together  to  uphold  those  great  constitutional  principles 
which  a  vacillating  and  pusillanimous  prince  seemed  ready  to 
abandon  ?  What  confidence  could  Catholics  repose  in  one  whose 
policy  consisted  in  friendly  negociations  with  the  arch-heretic 
Henry  of  Navarre,  and  in  loading  the  Huguenots  with  privileges 
and  guarantees  which  made  them  almost  independent  of  the 
central  government?  Was  it  not  imperative  to  provide  a 
remedy  for  such  ruinous  incapacity  ?  The  moment  had  arrived 
when  all  true-hearted  patriots  must  combine  in  defence  of  the 
institutions  of  their  country  and  the  religion  of  their  ancestors. 
Those  who  held  aloof  would  vainly  reproach  themselves  here- 
after, if  they  should  live  to  see  the  day  when  throne  and  altar, 


*  This  principle  was  distinctly  eiran-  reigns  and  their  subjects  is  taken  by 

ciated  in  the  manifesto  of  the  Cardinal  Ft-ne'lon  (De  Summi  Pontificis  auctori- 

of  Bourbon,   March,   31,   1585.      "Ce  fate,  cap.  xxxix.).   "  Catholicarum  gen- 

royaume    tres  -  Chretien    ne    souffrira  tiura  haec  fuit  sententia   animis   alte 

jamais  regner  un    he're'tique,   attendu  impressa,  scilicet    supremam    auctori- 

que  les  sujets  ne  sont  tenus  <le  recon-  tatem  commit ti  non  posse  nisi  Principi 

noitre  ni  soutenir  la  domination  d'un  Catholico,    eamque    esse    legem    sive 

prince  de'voye  de  la  foi  Caiholique  et  conditionem  tanto  contractui  appositam 

relaps.  e"tant  le  premier  serment  que  j  populos  inter  et  principem    ut  populi 

fassent  nos  rois,  lorsqne  Ton  Itur  met  principi  fideles  parerent,  modo  princeps 

la  couvonne  sur  la  tete,  maintenir  la  !  ipse  Catholic*  religioni  obsequeretur. 

religion    Catholique,    Apostolique    et  Qua     lege    posita,    passim    putabant 

Romaine,     sous     lequel     serment     Us  onmes  solutum   csse  vincultim  sacra- 

rec.oivent    celui    de    fidelite'   de    leurs  menti  fidelitatis  a  tota  gente  prsestitum, 

sujets,  et  non  autrement."    Mem.  de  la  aimul  atque  princeps,  ea  lege  violata, 

Ligue,  torn.  i.  p.  56.     The  same  view  \  Catholic*    religioni  contumaci  animo 

of  the  contract  between  Catholic  sove-  resisteret." 

VOL.    I.  N 


178 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  III. 


public  law  and  private  freedom,  political  credit  and  national 
unity,  had  been  demolished  in  one  indiscriminate  overthrow. 

Thus  argued  the  zealots  of  the  League ;  and  the  most  ener- 
getic and  influential  among  them,  as  I  have  said,  were  priests 
and  prelates  of  the  Gallican  Church.  Some  idea  may  be  formed 
of  the  prevalence  of  clerical  disaffection  from  the  fact  that,  of  all 
the  parochial  benefices  in  the  capital,  there  were  only  three 
that  were  not  held  by  declared  adherents  of  the  faction.*  Each 
parish,  carefully  organized  by  its  pastor,  became  a  focus  of  sedi- 
tious agitation.  Three  out  of  the  four  personages  styled  "  the 
pillars  of  the  League  "  were  ecclesiastics  ; — Jean  Prevost,  doctor 
of  the  Sorbonne  and  cure  of  S.  Severin,  Jean  Boucher,  also  a 
member  of  the  Sorbonne  and  cure  of  S.  Benoit,  and  Matthieu  de 
Launay,  a  canon  of  Soissons.  The  fourth,  the  Sieur  de  Roche- 
blonde,  was  a  layman,  but  closely  connected  with  the  Church, 
being  "  receveur  des  decimes "  for  the  diocese  of  Paris.  They 
were  soon  joined  by  others,  among  whom  were  two  in  high  station, 
Aymar  Hennequin,  Bishop  of  Rennes,  and  Guillaume  Rose, 
Bishop  of  Senlis ;  and  the  secret  committee  thus  formed  after- 
wards developed  into  the  Council  of  the  "  Seize,"  which  for  many 
years  held  absolute  sway  in  the  metropolis.!  The  clerical 
leaguers  distinguished  themselves  so  much  as  preachers,  that 
in  a  short  time  they  monopolised  all  the  important  pulpits  in 
Paris.  Year  after  year  they  were  appointed  to  deliver  the  Lenten 
course  of  sermons  at  the  cathedral  of  Notre-Dame ;  which  was 
esteemed  an  office  of  high  honour,  and  gave  unbounded  facili- 
ties for  exciting  the  fanatical  passions  of  the  multitude. 

The  death  of  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  presumptive  heir  to  the 
throne,  in  1584,  determined  the  League  to  immediate  action. 
In  the  event  of  the  king's  dying  without  issue,  which  was  most 
probable, — the  crown  would  now  devolve  upon  Henry  of  Bourbon, 
the  acknowledged  leader  of  the  Huguenots; — a  contingency 
which,  in  the  view  of  the  ultra-Catholics  (and,  as  we  have  seen, 
they  were  not  without  plausible  grounds  for  maintaining  it) 
would  subvert  the  entire  framework  of  the  constitution.  They 
were  compelled,  therefore,  by  the  necessities  of  their  position,  to 
abandon  the  principles  of  Divine  right  and  hereditary  succession, 


*  Ch.  Labitte,  La  democratie  chez 
les  Predicateurs  de  la  Ligue,  p.  76.  The 
three  exceptions  were  St.  Eustache,  St. 


Sulpice,  and  St.  Me'ry. 

t  Palma-Cayet,   Introduction  to  the 
Chronologie  Novenaire,  p.  273. 


A.D.  1585.  SECRET  TREATY  OF  THE  LEAGUE.  179 

and  to  look  round  for  a  candidate  who,  in  default  of  legitimate 
claim  by  birth,  possessed  qualifications  for  the  throne  \vhich 
they  accounted  even  more  important.  Not  venturing  to  put 
forth  openly  the  pretensions  of  the  Duke  of  Guise,  they  fixed 
upon  the  Cardinal  of  Bourbon,  Archbishop  of  Eouen,  uncle  of 
the  King  of  Navarre ;  an  insignificant  person,  far  advanced  in 
years,  whose  name  was  evidently  borrowed  for  mere  purposes 
of  temporary  convenience.  A  flattering  proposal  was  marle  to 
the  cardinal,  and  entertained  by  him,  that  he  should  procure  a 
dispensation  from  his  vows,  and  afterwards  marry  the  Duchess 
of  Montpensier,  sister  of  the  Duke  of  Guise. 

In  January,  1585,  the  chiefs  of  the  League  signed  a  secret 
treaty  at  Joinville  with  the  King  of  Spain,  by  which  the  con- 
tracting parties  made  common  cause  for  the  extirpation  of  all 
sects  and  heresies  in  France  and  the  Netherlands,  and  for 
excluding  from  the  French  throne  princes  who  were  heretics,  or 
who  "  treated  heretics  with  public  impunity."  It  was  stipulated 
that  the  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent  should  be  received  and 
enforced  in  France  in  their  full  extent.  Liberal  supplies  of  men 
and  money  were  to  be  furnished  to  the  insurgents  by  Philip 
from  the  moment  that  war  should  break  out ;  the  subsidies  to 
be  repayable  on  the  accession  of  the  Cardinal  de  Bourbon,  "  or  of 
his  successor."  * 

The  Leaguers  lost  no  time  in  seeking  for  their  enterprise  the 
all-important  sanction  of  the  Holy  See.  For  this  purpose  they 
despatched  as  their  envoy  to  Eome  a  Jesuit  named  Claude 
Matthieu,  whose  indefatigable  activity  in  their  service  made  him 
famous  afterwards  under  the  title  of  the  "  courier  of  the  League." 
The  Jesuit  fraternity  in  France  had  embraced  with  passionate 
ardour  the  anti-royalist  cause.  The  sole  exception  was  the 
celebrated  Edmond  Auger,  at  this  time  confessor  to  Henry  III. ; 
who,  being  sincerely  attached  to  his  royal  penitent,  refused  to 
listen  to  any  treasonable  overtures,  and  exerted  himself  to  con- 
firm the  wavering  fidelity  of  others.  The  General  of  the  order, 
Aquaviva,  testified  his  disapproval  of  this  conduct  by  sum- 
marily removing  Auger  from  his  confidential  post  at  court.t 

Matthieu,  in  concert  with  Cardinal  de  Pelleve,  Archbishop  of 


*  Contin.  de  Fleury,  Liv.  clxxvii.  2. 

t  Cretineau-Joly,  Hist,  de  la  Comp.  de  J<'sus,  torn.  ii.  p.  400. 

N   2 


180  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  III. 

Sens,  who  was  then  residing  at  Home,  did  his  utmost  to  obtain 
from  Pope  Gregory  XIII.  an  authoritative  approval  of  the 
League  and  its  proceedings.  His  Holiness,  however,  was  cau- 
tious and  reserved.  He  expressed  in  general  terms  his  consent 
to  the  project  of  taking  up  arms  against  the  heretics,  and 
granted  a  plenary  indulgence  to  those  who  should  aid  in  that 
holy  work.  But  he  declined  to  countenance  the  deposition  of 
the  king  by  violence,*  and  answered  vaguely  when  pressed  to 
launch  a  formal  sentence  of  excommunication  against  Henry  of 
Navarre.  Nor  did  Gregory's  successor,  Sixtus  V.,  show  himself 
at  all  better  disposed  to  endorse  the  revolutionary  views  of  the 
League.  He  met  the  solicitations  of  the  Duke  of  Nevers  by 
inquiring  "  in  what  school  he  had  learned  that  it  was  lawful  to 
form  political  associations  contrary  to  the  will  of  his  sovereign  ?" 
He  sympathized  with  Henry  in  his  perplexities,  and  predicted 
that,  ere  long,  he  would  be  compelled  to  resort  for  help  to  the 
heretics  in  order  to  emancipate  himself  from  the  tyranny  of 
the  Catholics.  At  length,  however,  Sixtus  was  persuaded  to 
fulminate  a  bull  against  the  King  of  Navarre  and  the  Prince  of 
Conde",  in  which,  after  expatiating  in  unmeasured  language  on 
the  supreme  power  of  the  Apostolic  See  over  all  earthly  poten- 
tates,— who,  when  they  failed  in  their  duty,  "  were  to  be  chastised 
and  crushed  as  ministers  of  Satan," — he  declared  the  two  princes 
to  be  heretics  relapsed,  and  notorious  fautors  and  abettors  of 
heresy ;  as  such,  they  had  incurred  all  the  pains  and  penalties 
denounced  by  the  Church  on  these  offences;  and,  in  conse- 
quence, the  said  Henry  of  Bourbon  was  deprived  of  his  pre- 
tended kingdom  of  Navarre,  and  of  the  principality  of  Beam, 
and  Henry  of  Conde  in  like  manner  was  stripped  of  whatever 
dignities,  domains,  fiefs,  and  lordships,  he  might  possess.  Both 
culprits,  together  with  their  heirs  and  posterity,  were  pro- 
nounced for  ever  incapable  of  succeeding  to  the  throne  of 
France,  or  any  other  dignity;  their  subjects  and  vassals  were 
released  from  their  oath  of  homage,  and  forbidden  to  obey  them 
under  pain  of  excommunication.  Lastly,  the  King  of  France 


*  "  Le  Pape  ne  trouve  pas  bon  que  j   tinssent  en  bride,  et  lui  donnassent  bon 

Ton   attente   sur  la  vie   du   Roi,  ear  |   conseil   et   le  lui  fissent  exe'cuter,  on 

eel  a  ne  se  peut  faire   en   bonne  con-  ,    trouveroit   bon    cela.''  —  Me  moires    de 

science ;  maid  si  en  pouvoit  se  saisir  de  Nevers.     Anquetil,  Esprit  de  la  Ligue. 
sft  porsonne,  et  lui  donner  gens  qui  le 


A.D.  1585.          BULL  AGAINST  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.  181 

was  exhorted  to  cause  the  sentence  to  be  executed,  and  the 
prelates  of  the  realm,  were  enjoined,  on  their  canonical  obe- 
dience, to  publish  it  in  their  respective  dioceses.* 

Such  was  the  state  of  imbecility  and  helplessness  to  which 
Henry  of  Valois  was  reduced,  that  he  durst  not  deal  with  this 
outrageous  document  as  it  deserved.  The  Parliament  of  Paris 
remonstrated  against  it  with  manly  vigour,  representing  to  the 
king  that  he  ought  to  treat  it  as  one  of  his  royal  ancestors  had 
done  with  a  bull  of  similar  import — namely,  to  consign  it  to  the 
flames  in  the  presence  of  the  Gallican  Church,  and  to  take  such 
exemplary  vengeance  upon  those  who  had  expedited  it  from 
Kome  as  should  serve  for  a  lesson  to  all  posterity.f  They 
firmly  refused  to  register  the  bull,  and  the  king,  too  feeble  to 
enforce  obedience,  contented  himself  with  allowing  the  matter 
to  drop  in  silence.  Hemy  of  Navarre,  however,  published  an 
indignant  reply  to  the  Pope's  sentence,  appealing  against  it, 
"  comme  d'abus,"  to  the  French  court  of  peers ;  he  retorted  the 
charge  of  heresy  upon  Sixtus  himself,  and  offered  to  prove 
it  before  a  free  and  legitimate  Council ;  and  he  concluded  by 
threatening  measures  of  retaliation,  such  as  had  been  taken 
by  several  princes  of  his  family  in  former  days  against  similar 
acts  of  insolent  aggression  by  the  Court  of  Roine4  The  Pope 
openly  expressed  his  admiration  of  this  exhibition  of  spirit 
and  energy  on  the  part  of  the  Huguenot  chief. 

The  excommunication  of  the  King  of  Navarre  was  an  im- 
portant boon  to  the  Leaguers ;  they  now  increased  rapidly  in 
general  credit  and  popularity  as  the  champions  of  the  orthodox 
faith.  Their  preachers  began  to  declaim  vehemently,  not  only 
against  the  heretics,  but  against  Henry  III.,  whom  they  per- 
sisted in  representing  as  a  partisan  and  accomplice  of  these 
enemies  of  the  Church.  The  irregularities  of  the  king's  life, 
combined  with  his  occasional  paroxysms  of  superstitious  devo- 
tion, furnished  abundant  food  for  their  philippics.  The  grotesque 
processions  of  the  "  confreries  de  penitents  "  were  ridiculed  with- 
out mercy  by  Maurice  Poncet,  curd  of  S.  Pierre  des  Arcis,  a 


*  Me'moires  de  la  Ligue,  torn.  i.  p. 
343. 

t  P.  de  L'Estoile,  Journal  de  Henri 
111.,  torn.  i.  p.  299.  (Petitot,  1  serie, 
torn,  xlv.) 

I  This   protest   was  drawn    up    by 


Pierre  de  1'Estoile,  the  author  of  the 
Journal  de  Henri  III.  L'Estoile  was 
a  member  of  the  Grand  Couseil,  and 
an  "  audiencier  ''  of  the  Chancery  of 
France. 


182  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  III. 

divine  of  great  eloquence  and  considerable  learning,  though  not 
remarkable  for  refinement  of  taste  or  diction.  Poncet  made  the 
walls  of  his  church  ring  with  denunciations  of  these  hypocritical 
devotees,  who,  after  parading  the  streets  barefoot,  arrayed  in 
sackcloth,  and  displaying  ostentatiously  the  outward  signs  of 
austere  asceticism,  were  accustomed  to  pass  the  night  in  riotous 
feasting  and  gross  debauchery.  Henry,  resenting  this  exposure, 
banished  the  offender  to  his  abbey  of  Saint  Pere  at  Melun ;  but 
he  was  released  after  a  brief  confinement,  and  returned  to  Paris 
by  the  king's  permission,  his  Majesty  remarking  that  "  he  had 
always  believed  the  good  doctor  to  have  a  zeal  for  God,  but  not 
according  to  knowledge ;  and  that  there  was  much  excuse  for 
him,  since  he  was  not  quick  enough  of  apprehension  to  see 
through  the  artifices  of  those  by  whom  he  was  instigated.  He 
had  plenty  of  scholarship,  but  was  grievously  deficient  in  judg- 
ment."* Poncet,  unsubdued  by  the  king's  leniency,  resumed 
his  usual  incisive  style  of  pulpit  oratory,  and  persevered  in  it 
till  his  death,  which  happened  in  1586. 

Guillaume  Eose,  one  of  the  king's  preachers  in  ordinary,  made 
himself  equally  conspicuous  by  satirizing  the  eccentricities  of 
his  sovereign.  Henry  rebuked  him  for  his  insolence,  and  Rose 
sued  for  forgiveness ;  whereupon  the  king  sent  him  a  few  days 
afterwards  four  hundred  crowns,  "  to  help  him  to  buy  sugar  and 
honey  to  sweeten  his  bitter  words,  that  he  might  pass  Lent 
more  comfortably."  t  Eose  was  already  grand-master  of  the 
college  of  Navarre,  and  in  1584  the  king  preferred  him  to 
the  bishopric  of  Senlis ;  but,  notwithstanding  these  marks  of 
favour,  he  continued  to  vituperate  his  benefactor,  and  foment 
se  lition  with  the  utmost  violence  and  malignity.  Such  was  his 
extravagance,  that  it  was  ascribed  to  a  sort  of  frenzy  or  delirium, 
to  which  he  was  said  to  be  periodically  subject. 

Every  day  the  League  became  more  desperate  in  its  attacks 
on  the  tottering  throne  of  the  last  of  the  Valois.  The  Duchess 
of  Montpensier,  who  regarded  Henry  with  profound  and  deadly 
hatred,  maintained  a  troop  of  preachers  regularly  in  her  pay, 
whose  sole  business  was  to  inflame  the  minds  of  the  populace 
against  him,  and  prepare  them  for  his  forcible  deposition.  She 
was  wont  to  say  that  she  had  done  more  for  the  good  cause  by 

*  P.  de  L'Estoile,  torn.  i.  p.  264.  t  Ibid.,  p.  252. 


A.D.  1587.  IMBECILITY  OF  HENRY  III.  183 

means  of  her  preachers,  than  her  brothers  had  done  by  their 
treaties  and  their  armies.*  They  were  actively  seconded  by  the 
Jesuits,  the  mendicant  friars,  the  Sorbonne,  the  Pope's  nuncio, 
and  the  secret  emissaries  of  Philip  of  Spain.  The  Sorbonne,  at 
a  meeting  on  the  16th  of  December,  1587,  passed  a  resolution 
that  "it  was  lawful  to  take  away  the  government  from  an 
ill-conducted  and  incompetent  prince,  just  as  a  guardian  who 
proved  himself  unworthy  of  confidence  might  be  deprived  of  his 
office."  For  this  piece  of  effrontery  the  doctors  received  a 
severe  castigation  from  the  king  himself,  who  summoned  them 
to  his  presence  at  the  Louvre,  and  upbraided  them  before  the 
whole  court  for  assailing  him  with  personal  calumnies,  and 
impugning  his  administration  of  the  affairs  of  state.  He  was 
not  disposed,  he  said,  to  visit  their  offence  very  seriously,  con- 
sidering that  their  resolution  had  been  passed  after  dinner.  He 
would  have  them  know,  however,  that  an  outrage  of  the  same 
kind  had  been  promptly  punished  by  Pope  Sixtus,  who  had 
lately  sent  to  the  galleys  certain  Franciscan  preachers  who  had 
dared  to  slander  him  in  their  discourses.  They  (the  doctors) 
deserved  a  like  treatment,  or,  perhaps,  something  worse ;  never- 
theless, he  was  willing  to  forgive  and  forget  the  past,  on  con- 
dition that  such  conduct  was  not  repeated.  In  case  of  any  fresh 
indiscretion,  he  should  order  his  court  of  Parliament  to  bring 
them  to  condign  justice  forthwith.! 

But  Henry's  circumstances  were  such  that  neither  his  acts  of 
clemency  nor  his  threats  of  severity  had  any  practical  effect. 
His  authority  soon  began  to  be  openly  set  at  defiance.  The 
Duchess  of  Montpensier,  who  was  in  the  habit  of  promenading 
the  streets  of  Paris  with  a  pair  of  golden  scissors  at  her  waist, 
destined,  as  she  boasted,  to  perform  the  ceremony  of  tonsure 
upon  Henry  when  he  exchanged  his  throne  for  a  cloister, 
received  a  royal  order  to  quit  the  capital.  She  treated  it  with 
utter  unconcern,  and  continued  to  indulge  in  the  same  strain  of 
insulting  bravado  with  impunity.  A  preacher  at  St.  Seve'riu  had 
delivered  himself  in  language  so  inflammatory  and  dangerous 
to  the  public  peace,  that  it  was  impossible  to  avoid  taking 
notice  of  it ;  but  no  sooner  was  it  known  that  the  myrmidons 
of  justice  were  in  quest  of  him,  than  the  populace,  incited  by  the 


*  P.  de  L'Estoile.  f  Ibid.,  torn.  i.  p.  344. 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  III. 

clergy  (especially  by  Boucher,  who  caused  the  tocsin  to  be  rung 
from  the  steeple  of  his  church  of  S.  Benoit),  rose  en  masse, 
attacked  the  royal  archers  with  overwhelming  numbers,  and 
drove  them  out  of  the  quartier  in  confusion.* 

This  first  armed  collision  between  the  Leaguers  and  the 
Government  was  quickly  followed  by  the  "  day  of  the  barri- 
cades "  (May  12,  1588),  the  events  of  which  virtually  dispos- 
sessed Henry  of  the  crown.  To  say  that  the  final  downfall  of 
the  house  of  Valois  was  the  work  of  the  Gallican  Church, 
would  be  an  overstatement  of  the  truth ;  but  that  it  was  brought 
about  through  the  influence  and  agency  of  Gallican  bishops  and 
clergy  is,  unhappily,  beyond  a  question. 

The  League  was  now  the  dominant  power  in  France.  The 
King  was  compelled,  as  the  condition  of  retaining  even  the 
semblance  of  authority,  to  accept  the  "  Edict  of  Union,"  which 
bound  him  to  employ  the  whole  strength  of  the  kingdom  for  the 
extermination  of  the  heretics,  to  declare  heretics  incapable  of 
succeeding  to  the  throne,  and  to  abandon  to  the  chief  Leaguers 
all  important  posts  of  trust  and  command.!  Among  other  pro- 
motions, Pierre  d'Espinac,  Archbishop  of  Lyons,  one  of  the  most 
turbulent  intriguers  of  the  time,  was  made  a  member  of  the 
Privy  Council,  and  promised  the  reversion  of  the  office  of  keeper 
of  the  seals.  He  was  also  recommended  to  the  Pope  for  a  car- 
dinal's hat. 

The  States -General,  which  met  immediately  afterwards  at 
Blois,  consisted  almost  exclusively  of  nominees  of  the  Duke  of 
Guise  and  ardent  apostles  of  the  League.  Among  them  we  find 
the  names  of  Claude  de  Saintes,  Bishop  of  Evreux;  Ayrnar 
Hennequin,  Bishop  of  Rennes  ;  and  two  Parisian  cures,  Cueilly 
and  Pelletier.  The  "  Seize,"  who  were  now  omnipotent  at  Paris, 
laboured  on  this  occasion  to  remodel  the  French  monarchy,  and 
reduce  it  to  a  popular  constitutional  government ;  proposing  that 
the  King  should  be  made  amenable  to  the  judgment  of  the 
legislature  in  case  of  abuse  of  power ;  requiring  that  the  States- 
General  should  be  consulted  before  any  proclamation  of  peace 
or  war;  and  prohibiting  all  levying  of  taxes  without  their 


*  See  the  Dialogue  d'entre  le  MaJteu- 
stre  et  le  Manant,  a  curious  brochure  of 
the  time,  printed  in  the  third  volume 
of  the  Satyre  Menipp&e.  It  was  com- 


posed  by    Crome',    a  member   of  the 
"  Seize." 

t  Palina-Cayet,  Introduction,  p.  397. 


A.D.  1588.  ASSASSINATION  OF  THE  GUISES.  185 

express  consent.  They  also  provoked  an  acrimonious  debate  on 
the  vexed  question  of  the  reception  of  the  Council  of  Trent. 
Commissioners  were  named  to  confer  with  the  law  officers  of  the 
crown  on  the  subject ;  one  of  whom,  the  Archbishop  of  Lyons, 
reviled  the  "  Gallican  liberties  "  as  a  mere  human  invention,  a 
transparent  device  for  subverting  the  authority  of  the  Apostolic 
See,  a  specious  veil  for  people  of  suspected  opinions  in  religion, 
eager  to  conceal  their  errors  by  professing  extraordinary  zeal 
for  the  interests  of  the  State.  He  was  answered  at  length  by 
the  Avocat-General,  who  did  not  omit  to  taunt  him  with  his 
anomalous  antecedents;  for  in  former  days  this  versatile  pre- 
late had  been  a  professed  Calvinist,  and  was  accused  of  having 
sacrificed  his  conscience  to  certain  prospects  of  preferment  held 
out  to  him  as  the  price  of  conforming  to  the  established  Church. 
The  dispute  was  continued  by  St.  Gelais  de  Lansac,  ci-devant 
ambassador  of  Charles  IX.  at  Trent,  who  pompously  eulogized 
the  Council,  and  expatiated  on  the  obligations  of  Catholics  to 
submit  to  its  decrees.  He  was  sharply  catechised  by  the 
Avocat-General  as  to  the  sentiments  he  had  held  upon  these 
points  twenty  years  before ;  and  a  scene  of  altercation  followed, 
which  became  so  tumultuous  that  it  was  judged  necessary  to 
close  the  sitting.* 

These  undignified  squabbles  were  cut  short  by  the  portentous 
tidings  of  the  assassination  of  the  Duke  of  Guise.  Over-elated 
by  his  successes,  that  haughty  noble  had  proceeded  to  intoler- 
able lengths  of  audacity;  and  Henry,  pleading  the  universal 
right  of  self-defence,  and  the  impossibility  of  dealing  with  such 
a  criminal  by  any  of  the  ordinary  forms  of  executive  justice, 
removed  him  from  his  path  by  a  deliberate  act  of  murder.  His 
brother,  the  Cardinal  of  Guise,  was  despatched  secretly  in  prison 
the  next  day.  Within  seven  months  afterwards  the  penalty  of 
this  great  crime  was  exacted  by  the  avenging  dagger  of  Jacques 
Clement.  Its  immediate  fruit  was  the  outburst  of  a  desperate 
revolt  in  Paris  and  the  provinces,  and  the  organization  of  a  rebel 
government  under  the  auspices  of  the  League. 

The  clergy  were  the  prime  movers  of  the  insurrection.  On 
the  first  news  of  the  catastrophe  at  Blois,  Guincestre,  or 
Lincestre,  cure  of  St.  Gervais,  made  a  furious  attack  upon  Henry 


*  Mezerai,  Hint,  du  Regne  de  Henri  III.,  torn.  iii.  p.  204  et  seqq. 


186 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  III. 


from  the  pulpit,  calling  him  a  "  vilain  Herodes  "  (an  anagram  of 
Henri  de  Valois),  a  poisoner,  an  assassin,  and  declaring  that  he 
had  forfeited  all  claims  to  allegiance.  In  another  discourse  at 
St.  Barthelemi,  the  same  preacher  called  upon  his  congregation 
to  hold  up  their  hands  and  join  in  a  solemn  oath  to  expend  the 
last  denier  in  their  purses  and  the  last  drop  of  blood  in  their 
veins  in  taking  vengeance  for  the  death  of  the  two  princes  of 
Lorraine.  Appealing  by  name  to  Achille  de  Harlai,  first  pre- 
sident of  the  Parliament,  who  was  seated  opposite  the  pulpit, 
Guincestre  bade  him  raise  his  hand  high — higher  than  the  rest 
— so  that  all  present  might  see  it.  A  refusal,  under  the  circum- 
stances, might  have  been  the  signal  for  uproar  and  outrage,  and 
de  Harlai  obeyed.*  Franpois  Pigenat,  cure  of  St.  Nicolas  des 
Champs,  another  incendiary  orator,  preached  a  funeral  sermon 
for  the  Guises  at  Notre-Dame,  in  which  he  exhorted  his  hearers 
in  plain  terms  to  let  nothing  deter  them  from  the  righteous  act 
of  retribution  which  God  and  man  alike  demanded  of  them, 
namely  the  destruction  of  the  tyrant  who  had  shed  the  blood  of 
the  martyrs  of  Blois. 

These  harangues  impelled  the  exasperated  citizens  to  various 
acts  of  lawless  excess.  Many,  however,  still  hesitated  to  commit 
themselves  to  an  open  revolt  against  the  royal  authority ;  and 
in  order  to  overcome  such  scruples,  the  demagogues  resorted 
to  the  Theological  Faculty,  in  which  they  commanded  a  pre- 
ponderating influence  through  Boucher,  Prevost,  Pigenat,  and 
other  doctors  attached  to  their  faction.  The  Sorbonne,  in  reply 
to  this  application,  passed  a  decree  to  the  effect  that  the  people 
were  released  from  their  oath  of  allegiance  and  obedience  to 
the  King;  and  that  they  might  with  a  safe  conscience  take 
arms  and  raise  money  for  the  defence  of  the  Catholic  Church 
against  the  wicked  designs  of  the  said  king  and  his  adherents, 
from  the  moment  when  he  violated  his  faith  publicly  pledged  to 
the  maintenance  of  the  Catholic  religion,  the  Edict  of  Union,  and 
the  liberty  of  the  States  of  the  realm. 

The  decree  was  carried  after  a  feeble  resistance  from  a  few 
more  moderate  divines ;  and  was  immediately  transmitted  to 
Rome  for  the  approval  and  confirmation  of  the  Apostolic  See.f 


*  L'Estoile,  Journal  de  Henri  III., 
torn.  i.  p.  379. 

t  L'Estoile,  Journal  de  Henri  IV., 


torn,  i.,  p.  41.  Me'zerai,  Hist,  du  Eegne 
de  Henri  III.,  torn.  iii.  p.  291.  De 
Thou.,  Liv.  xciv. 


A.D.  1589.  PRINCIPLES  OP  THE  LEAGUE.  187 

The  Sorbonne  now  ordered  the  King's  name  to  be  erased  from 
the  formularies  of  the  Church ;  and  the  customary  "  Domine, 
salvum  fac  Uegem  nostrum,"  was  replaced  by  petitions  "pro 
Principibus  nostris  Christianis."  * 

Such  acts  on  the  part  of  the  illustrious  Society  which  for  three 
centuries  had  directed  the  conscience  and  governed  the  ecclesi- 
astical policy  of  France,  had  an  electrical  effect  upon  the  nation 
at  large.  Besides  the  metropolis  and  the  He  de  France,  all  the 
large  towns  in  the  northern  provinces,  the  whole  of  Burgundy 
and  Champagne,  the  cities  of  Lyons  and  Toulouse,  the  greater 
part  of  Auvergne,  Limousin,  and  Quercy,  and,  in  short,  the  entire 
kingdom  with  the  exception  of  a  few  towns  on  the  Loire,  re- 
nounced their  allegiance  to  the  King,  and  fraternized  with  the 
League  and  the  Duke  of  Mayenue,  its  general-in-chief. 

Paris  was  the  centre  of  the  rebellion.  Here  the  Leaguers 
established  their  executive  government,  the  "  Council  General 
of  the  Union,"  which  consisted  at  first  of  forty  members,  and 
was  afterwards  increased  to  fifty-four.  Of  these  tribunes  of  the 
people  ten  belonged  to  the  clerical  order ;  namely,  four  bishops, 
Louis  de  Breze  of  Meaux,  G-uillaume  Eose  of  Senlis,  Nicolas 
de  Villars  of  Agen,  Aymar  Hennequin  of  Kennes ;  five  parish 
priests  of  Paris,  Prevost  of  St.  SeVerm,  Boucher  of  St.  Benoit, 
Aubry  of  St.  Andre,  Pelletier  of  St.  Jacques,  Pigenat  of  St. 
Nicolas  des  Champs;  and  the  canon  of  Soissons  Matthieu  de 
Launay. 

The  Council  assumed  all  the  attributes  of  sovereignty,  includ- 
ing the  disposal  of  ecclesiastical  preferments  in  the  gift  of  the 
Crown. 

The  principles  represented  by  the  League  were  somewhat 
heterogeneous  and  contradictory.  Politically,  it  was  derno- 
cratical ;  religiously,  it  was  extravagantly  Ultramontane.  The 
sovereignty  of  the  people  was  one  of  its  fundamental  axioms. 
"  It  is  the  people  that  makes  kings,"  cried  the  mob  orators  of 
Paris,  "and  the  people,  when  it  pleases,  can  unmake  them." 
"  The  crown  of  France  is  not  hereditary,  but  elective  ;  we  obey 
kings,  but  not  "tyrants."  Similar  sentiments  had  been  lately 
broached  in  a  work  of  some  celebrity  emanating  from  the  school 
directly  opposite,  namely  the  "Franco-Gallia"  of  the  Protestant 


*  Cuntin.  de  Fleury,  Liv.  clxxviii.  83. 


188  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  III. 

Franpois  Hotinan.  In  the  mouth  of  a  Calvinist  they  might  be 
natural  and  consistent ;  but  they  were  paradoxical  as  coming 
from  Catholics,  who  up  to  this  time  had  been  devoted  to  the 
strict  monarchical  theory,  divine  right  and  hereditary  succes- 
sion. Tyrants,  the  League  proceeded  to  argue,  may  be  lawfully 
resisted ;  certain  delinquencies  on  the  part  of  the  chief  magis- 
trate of  a  State  entail  the  loss  of  his  authority ;  and  for  such 
failures  he  is  responsible  to  public  justice.  From  this  doctrine 
they  further  deduced,  and  not  illogically,  the  lawfulness  of 
tyrannicide, — a  dogma  for  which  sufficient  vindication  was  found 
in  the  Scriptural  example  of  Judith  and  Holofernes,  and  others 
of  like  character. 

These  republican  tendencies  in  politics  the  League  combined 
with  an  absolute  subjection  of  body  and  soul  to  the  autocracy  of 
Rome.  The  authority  of  the  Vicar  of  Christ  was  paramount  and 
universal ;  to  him  it  belonged  to  dispose  at  his  will  of  all  thrones 
and  dominions  of  this  world ;  it  was  for  him  to  settle  all  dis- 
puted questions  and  claims  of  sovereignty  ;  and  any  course  of 
action,  any  enterprise,  became  infallibly  legitimate  and  safe  from 
the  moment  when  it  was  stamped  with  his  sanction.  Hence  the 
League  abjured  the  "Gallican  liberties,"  and  everything  else 
that  tended  to  circumscribe  the  illimitable  jurisdiction  of  the 
see  of  St.  Peter. 

It  was  a  curious  medley  of  two  extreme  currents  of  thought ; 
the  one  originating  in  the  freedom  of  judgment  asserted  by  the 
Reformation,  the  other  fraught  with  the  spirit  of  Hildebran;], 
Innocent,  and  Boniface, — of  medieval  theocracy. 

The  phenomenon  may  be  partially  explained  by  the  fact  that 
the  position  of  the  two  great  parties  in  this  memorable  struggle 
was  now,  by  a  singular  turn  of  events,  reversed.  Henry  III., 
finding  himself  forsaken  and  defenceless,  formed  a  coalition 
with  Henry  of  Navarre  and  the  Huguenots,  in  the  hope  that  he 
might  thus  confront  the  League  with  a  superior  force.  The 
Huguenots,  who  till  now  had  been  regarded  as  the  party 
factiously  opposed  to  the  Government,  became  by  this  step  the 
champions  of  order,  legitimacy,  and  constitutional  authority ; 
while  the  Leaguers,  whose  antecedents,  as  stanch  Catholics, 
were  those  of  firm  attachment  to  the  throne,  were  impelled  into 
a  course  of  reckless  rebellion. 

Yet,  with  all  its  alloy  of  violence  and  cruelty,  of  false  ethics 


A.D.  1589.  CLAUDE  DE  SAINTES.  189 

and  wild  fanaticism,  the  League  was  a  fight  for  real  principles, 
and,  as  such,  had  attractions  for  earnest  and  superior  minds. 

We  must  not  imagine  that  all  its  partisans  were  mere  instru- 
ments of  the  ambition  of  the  Guises ;  that  their  only  motives 
were  vanity  and  self-interest;  that  they  wantonly  and  mali- 
ciously "  turned  faith  into  faction  and  religion  into  rebellion." 
Numbers  there  were  to  whom  this  description  applied  but  too 
truly  ;  but  there  were  many  of  a  very  different  stamp.  There 
were  those  who  conscientiously  believed  that  the  League  was 
the  only  available  means  of  obtaining  reparation  for  the  crying 
acts  of  injustice  committed  by  the  Crown  against  the  National 
Church ;  there  were  those  who  thought  the  cause  of  true 
religion  so  grievously  imperilled,  that  all  other  considerations 
were  to  be  sacrificed  without  hesitation  in  its  defence.  Con- 
templating the  state  of  affairs  from  the  only  point  of  view  in 
which  their  education,  their  profession,  and  their  convictions 
permitted  them  to  regard  it,  such  men  were  led  to  concentrate 
all  their  hopes  for  the  salvation  of  France  in  the  success  of  the 
League. 

Among  this  class  the  first  place  must  be  assigned  to  Claude 
de  Saintes,  Bishop  of  Evreux.  Whatever  judgment  we  may  pass 
upon  the  conduct  of  this  great  prelate  in  his  later  years,  he 
must  not  be  confounded  with  the  herd  of  vulgar  babblers  who 
sought  notoriety  by  pandering  to  the  passions  of  a  ferocious 
mob.  Claude  de  Saintes  was  one  of  the  most  finished  scholars 
and  theologians  of  the  age.  In  early  life  he  was  protected  and 
advanced  by  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  who  sent  him  to  study  at 
the  College  of  Navarre.  Here  he  gained  such  a  high  reputa- 
tion that  he  was  chosen  as  one  of  the  Catholic  controversialists 
at  the  Colloquy  of  Poissy,  and  afterwards  as  one  of  the  divines 
commissioned  to  represent  the  Sorbonne  at  the  Council  of 
Trent.  Deeply  convinced  of  the  grave  errors  of  Protestantism, 
de  Saintes  opposed  it  with  all  the  force  of  a  commanding 
intellect  and  an  energetic  will;  and  his  success  in  combating 
heresy,  together  with  the  vast  learning  displayed  in  his  elaborate 
treatise  on  the  Eucharist,  procured  his  elevation,  in  1575,  to 
the  episcopal  see  of  Evreux.  It  was  now  that  he  allowed  him- 
self, unfortunately  for  his  own  peace,  to  be  carried  away  by  the 
revolutionary  torrent  of  the  League.  He  instigated  his  flock  to 
rise  in  arms,  and  it  was  through  his  personal  efforts  that  the 


190 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  III. 


city  of  Evreux  and  the  whole  diocese  engaged  in  the  rebellion. 
He  even  sold  the  ancient  hotel  belonging  to  his  see  in  the 
Faubourg  S.  Antoine  at  Paris,  and  employed  the  proceeds  in 
promoting  the  cause  of  the  insurgents.*  Evreux  having  been 
at  length  captured  by  the  royal  troops,  the  bishop  fled  to 
Louviers,  where  he  was  arrested  by  order  of  Henry  IV.,  and 
sent  prisoner  to  Caen,  to  take  his  trial  before  the  parliament  of 
Normandy.  He  was  convicted  of  having  publicly  applauded 
the  murder  of  Henry  III.,  and  of  having  intimated  that  his 
successor  might  lawfully  be  consigned  to  the  same  fate. 
Thereupon  he  was  condemned  to  death ;  but,  at  the  earnest 
intercession  of  the  Cardinal  de  Bourbon,  the  king  commuted 
the  capital  penalty  into  that  of  imprisonment  for  life.  Claude 
de  Saint es  was  now  transferred  to  the  chateau  of  Crevecceur 
near  Lisieux ;  and  there,  after  a  brief  captivity,  he  breathed 
his  last  in  October,  1591.  His  remains  were  interred  in  the 
Cathedral  of  Evreux. 

A  like  example  is  on  record  in  the  history  of  Gilbert  Gene- 
brard,  Archbishop  of  Aix.  He  was  a  man  passionately  devoted 
from  his  youth  to  learned  study ;  profoundly  versed  in  theo- 
logical lore ;  an  exact  canonist,  a  renowned  linguist,  and  Pro- 
fessor of  Hebrew  in  the  College  de  France.  Such  was  his  place 
in  the  estimation  of  the  ecclesiastical  world,  that  when  he  went 
to  Rome,  Pope  Sixtus  V.  and  the  Sacred  College  gave  him  a 
public  reception,  with  marks  of  almost  unexampled  honour. 
Pierre  Danes,  bishop  of  Lavaur,  the  same  who  figured  so  con- 
spicuously at  the  Council  of  Trent,  proposed  to  resign  his  see 
in  favour  of  Genebrard;  but  there  were  obstacles  which  pre- 
vented this  arrangement.  A  man  with  such  pursuits  and  such 
a  character  would  hardly  be  thought  likely  to  precipitate  him- 
self into  all  the  turmoil  and  danger  of  a  popular  insurrection  ; 
yet  when  the  League  broke  out,  there  was  no  one  who  embraced 
it  with  a  more  delirious  enthusiasm  than  Gilbert  Genebrard. 

He  published  a  treatise  to  prove  that  all  persons  joining  in 
communion  or  any  religious  rite  with  Henry  III.,  after  the 
murder  of  the  Cardinal  de  Guise,  were  ipso  facto  excom- 
municatat  He  declaimed  furiously  at  Paris  against  the  pre- 


*  Gallia  Christiana,  torn.  xi.  p.  612. 

t  De  clericis  qui    participarent   in 

divinis  scienter  et  sponte  cum  Henrico 


Valesio  post  Cardinalicidium  assertio. 
— 8vo.,  1589. 


A.D.  1591. 


191 


tensions  of  Henry  IV.,  and  advocated  the  repeal  of  the  Salic 
law,  with  the  undisguised  object  of  procuring  the  advancement 
of  a  Spanish  Infanta  to  the  throne  of  France.  This  anti- 
national,  unpatriotic  policy  he  supported  further  by  signing, 
with  three  other  divines,  a  letter  addressed  by  the  "  Seize  "  to 
Philip  II.,  assuring  him  that  all  good  Catholics  earnestly 
longed  to  see  him  wielding  the  French  sceptre,  and  entreating 
him,  if  he  could  not  come  to  reign  over  them  in  person,  to  make 
choice  of  a  son-in-law,  whom  they  pledged  themselves  to 
recognize  as  king.*  This  measure  was  the  fruit  of  an  intrigue 
by  a  secret  knot  of  the  most  desperate  among  the  Leaguers, 
called  the  "  Council  of  Ten,"  who  opposed  themselves  to  the 
Duke  of  Mayenne  and  the  moderate  party,  and  achieved 
momentary  predominance  by  deeds  of  ruthless  cruelty  and 
bloodshed.  This  Council  of  Ten  was  headed  by  the  Cure 
Boucher,  who  for  a  short  time  became  all-powerful,  and  was 
dignified  with  the  title  of  "  King  of  the  League." 

Terrorism  reigned  for  some  weeks  in  Paris ;  but  the  effect  of 
these  excesses  was  to  strengthen  the  hands  of  Mayenne,  and  ere 
long  he  succeeded  in  putting  an  end  to  the  ascendency  of  the 
Seize.  Meanwhile  Genebrard  was  nominated  by  the  Council  of 
the  Union  to  the  archbishopric  of  Aix,  in  Provence,  of  which 
he  took  possession  in  September,  1592.  Here  he  passed  some 
years  in  comparative  retirement,  and  composed  one  of  his  ablest 
works,  a  treatise  on  ecclesiastical  elections,!  in  which  he 
inveighed  with  masterly  force  against  the  pernicious  usurpa- 
tions of  the  Concordat. 

From  that  fatal  invasion  of  the  liberties  of  the  Gallican 
Church,  properly  so  called,  the  author  deduces,  by  a  regular 
succession  of  cause  and  effect,  the  whole  series  of  calamities 
which  befell  the  house  of  Valois.  It  is  true  that  men  of  extreme 
views  and  headstrong  temper  seldom  find  much  difficulty  in 
making  facts  correspond  with  their  foregone  conclusions ;  but 
in  the  present  instance  the  chain  of  argument  was  so  solid  and 
so  powerfully  sustained  as  to  extort  a  general  assent,  even  from 


*  Palma-Cayet,  ChronoJagie  Nove- 
naire,  Liv.  iii.  Villeroy,  M&moires 
d'Estat,  torn.  iii.  p.  17.  The  letter  is 
dated  September  10,  1591. 


t  Liber  ile  jure  et  necessitate  sacra- 
rum  electionum  ad  Ecclesise  Gallicanae 
redintegrationem.  See  Nice'ron,  Vies 
des  Htmmea  lllustres,  torn.  xxii.  p.  17. 


192  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  III. 

sober  and  impartial  rninds.  The  parliament  of  Provence  took 
the  alarm ;  the  book  was  denounced  as  a  virtual  attack  on  the 
Gallican  liberties,  which  it  undoubtedly  was,  according  to 
the  modern  and  spurious  sense  of  that  much-abused  phrase ; 
and  was  condemned  to  be  publicly  burned  at  Aix.  The  tide  of 
reaction  now  ran  strongly  in  favour  of  the  Bourbon  monarchy, 
and  the  democratic  theories  of  the  League  were  renounced  and 
execrated  on  all  sides.  Genebrard  was  driven  from  his  arch- 
bishopric, and  sentenced  to  perpetual  banishment  from  France. 
The  latter  punishment,  however,  was  remitted  by  the  clemency 
of  Henry  IV.,  and  he  was  allowed  to  retire  to  an  abbey  which 
he  possessed  in  Burgundy ;  here  his  death  occurred  shortly 
afterwards,  in  1596. 

Fanaticism,  it  appears  from  these  and  like  instances,  must  not 
be  identified  with  ignorance.  It  may  co-exist  with  a  high 
degree  of  mental  cultivation;  with  learning,  with  experience, 
with  genuine  piety.  Men  of  the  type  of  Claude  de  Saintes 
and  Genebrard  were,  after  all,  but  fallible  mortals,  liable  both  to 
moral  and  intellectual  aberration.  They  were  betrayed  into 
excesses  which  are  altogether  indefensible.  Yet  it  must  be 
acknowledged  that  none  were  better  qualified  than  they  to 
determine  the  merits  of  the  questions  in  dispute ;  and  if  they 
were  driven  into  rebellion — believing  in  foro  conscientise  that 
the  cause  they  had  espoused  was  the  cause  of  truth  and  of 
God's  Church — the  condition  of  affairs,  ecclesiastical  and  civil, 
must  have  been  desperate  indeed. 

The  unbridled  license  of  the  popular  preachers  ruined  the 
cause  of  the  League.  The  rebellion  reached  its  climax  in 
January,  1593,  when  the  States -General  assembled  at  Paris, 
under  the  presidency  of  Mayenne,  to  proceed  to  the  election 
of  an  orthodox  King  of  France.  It  now  became  apparent  that, 
after  four  years  and  more  of  ceaseless  garrulity,  caballing,  and 
agitation  of  all  kinds,  the  most  hopeless  dissension  and  per- 
plexity still  prevailed  upon  the  grand  question  of  the  future 
government  of  the  country.  The  pretenders  to  the  throne  were 
numerous ; — the  King  of  Spain  and  his  daughter  Isabella  Clara 
Eugenia  ;  the  Duke  of  Mayenne  and  his  two  younger  brothers  ; 
two  princes  of  the  House  of  Savoy ;  to  say  nothing  of  the  heretic 
"  Bearnois,"  nor  of  those  members  of  his  family  who  adhered  to 


A.D.  1593.  DECLINE  OF  THE  LEAGUE.  193 

the  ancient  faith.  Each  of  these  claimants  had  his  knot  of 
zealous  supporters  in  the  Assembly.  The  moderate  Leaguers, 
who  were  disposed  to  come  to  terms  with  the  king,  had  gained 
ground  rapidly  since  the  suppression  of  the  Seize,  and  were 
strongly  represented  among  the  deputies  of  the  Tiers  Etat. 
Every  day  the  royal  cause  gained  fresh  adherents  in  the 
capital.  Reasonable  men  on  all  sides  began  to  agree  as  to 
the  true  remedy  to  be  applied  to  existing  evils  ;  and  to  see  that, 
if  the  king  could  only  be  persuaded  to  declare  himself  a  Catholic, 
his  success  was  a  matter  of  certainty.  There  was  still,  indeed, 
a  strong  party  devoted  to  the  interests  of  Spain ;  and  it  seems 
not  improbable  that  if  at  this  juncture  Philip  had  frankly 
announced  his  intention  to  bestow  the  Infanta  in  marriage  on 
the  young  Duke  of  Guise,  and  to  propose  them  as  joint  candi- 
dates for  the  throne,  the  League  might  yet  have  triumphed,  and 
Henry  IV.  might  never  have  reigned.  The  Spanish  envoys 
made  a  distinct  proposition  of  this  nature  to  the  three  Chambers 
on  the  21st  of  June ;  but  it  was  then  too  late.  Bishop  Rose, 
Boucher,  and  other  clerical  demagogues,  had  declared  in  favour 
of  maintaining  the  Salic  law  against  all  foreign  pretensions ; 
and  this  seems  to  have  had  a  decisive  effect  upon  public  opinion. 
The  friends  of  peace  at  Paris  began  to  negociate  in  secret  with 
the  Politiques  of  Henry's  temporary  court  at  Chartres,  with  a 
view  to  arrange  terms  of  accommodation  ;  and  it  was  not  long 
before  it  became  publicly  known  that  some  such  project  was  on 
foot.  The  plan  proposed  was  simple ;  it  consisted  in  sending  a 
deputation  to  invite  or  summon  (semondre)  the  king  to  reconcile 
himself  to  the  Catholic  Church.  Those  who  advocated  this 
course  were  styled  the  "  seinonneux ;"  and  upon  them  the  fanatic 
preachers  now  poured  forth  all  the  vials  of  their  vindictive 
wrath.  They  scouted  as  impious  all  idea  of  pacification  with 
the  Bearnois,  even  though  he  should  abjure  his  heresy  and  con- 
form to  the  Church.  Boucher  and  Pelletier  excommunicated 
any  of  their  parishioners  who  might  dare  to  hold  the  slightest 
intercourse,  even  in  matters  of  ordinary  commerce,  with  the 
abhorred  Politiques.  But  they  stormed  and  raved  in  vain. 
Instead  of  inspiring  fear,  they  excited  ridicule ;  and  it  was 
obvious  that  their  dominion  was  rapidly  declining.  In  defiance 
of  the  Papal  legate  and  the  Spanish  ambassador,  of  the  anathe- 
mas thundered  from  the  pulpits,  and  the  judicial  determinations 

VOL.  I.  O 


194 


THE  GALLICAN  CHUECH. 


CHAP.  III. 


of  the  Sorbonne  *  (at  this  time  completely  under  Ultramontane 
dictation),  the  three  Chambers  agreed  to  propose  a  conference 
to  the  Catholics  of  the  king's  party  ;  the  offer  was  accepted,  and 
the  first  meeting  was  fixed  for  the  29th  of  April,  at  the  -village 
of  Suresnes.  Protracted  discussions  now  ensued  (into  the 
details  of  which  it  is  needless  to  enter)  between  the  Archbishop 
of  Bourges,  as  chief  commissioner  for  the  Royalists,  and  the 
Archbishop  of  Lyons  on  behalf  of  the  League ;  and  the  result 
was  that  Henry  intimated  his  intention  to  seek  special  instruction 
forthwith  at  the  hands  of  the  Catholic  divines, — allowing  it  to 
be  understood  that  this  measure  was  shortly  to  be  followed  by  his 
public  retractation  of  Calvinism  and  submission  to  the  Church. 
It  was  during  the  conferences  at  Suresnes  that  the  Parliament 
of  Paris  took  the  memorable  step  which,  by  counteracting  the 
dangerous  pretensions  of  the  Court  of  Spain,  was  the  means  of 
saving  the  independent  nationality  of  France.  On  the  28th 
of  June,  1593,  the  magistrates — assembled  to  the  number  of 
fifty-five  presidents  and  councillors, — voted  a  resolution  which 
declared  any  treaty  for  establishing  a  foreign  prince  or  princess 
on  the  throne  to  be  absolutely  null  and  void,  as  made  in  contra- 
vention of  the  Salic  law,  and  other  fundamental  laws  of  the 
kingdom.!  The  Duke  of  Mayenne,  supported  by  the  Spaniards, 
the  legate,  Cardinal  de  Pelleve,  and  other  zealots,  made  a  show 
of  resisting  this  arret,  but  soon  found  it  necessary  to  acquiesce. 
The  States-General  determined,  almost  immediately  afterwards, 
to  adjourn  indefinitely  the  project  of  electing  a  king — the  very 
purpose  for  which  they  were  convoked ;  and  thus  acknowledged 
that  they  were  incompetent  to  direct  the  public  councils  in  this 
difficult  emergency.  These  were  significant  proofs  of  a  revolu- 
tion in  the  temper  of  the  nation,  which  was  ere  long  to  make 
itself  decisively  manifest.  Before  separating,  the  States-General 
of  the  League  voted  the  reception  "  pure  et  simple "  of  the 
decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent.  This  was  done  in  opposition 


*  The  Sorbonne  published  a  decree 
against  the  "  Semonneux,"  declaring 
their  proceedings  "  seditious  and  im- 
pious, contrary  both  to  the  canon  and 
civil  law,  opposed  to  the  admonition  of 
the  Pope  (Clement  VIII.)  to  the  oath 
of  the  Holy  Union,  and  to  the  glory 
which  Paris  had  acquired  in  the  eyes 
of  God  and  man.''  They  were,  in 


consequence,  pronounced  "  bad  citi- 
zens, disturbers  of  the  public  peace, 
suspected  abettors  of  heresy,  and  ex- 
communicate."— L'Estoilc,  Journal  de 
Henri  IV.,  an  1593. 

f  M& 'moires  de  la  Ligue,  torn.  v.  p. 
377.  Palma-Cayet,  Chronol.  Novenaire, 
Liv.  v. 


A.D.  1593.  THE  '  SATYRE  MENIPPEE.'  195 

to  the  report  of  a  commission  headed  by  the  President  Lemaitre, 
which  specified  twenty-three  articles  as  "  contrary  to  the  laws 
of  the  realm,  the  authority  of  the  Crown,  and  the  Gallican 
liberties."  * 

The  famous  '  Satyre  Menippee,'  which  was  circulated  in 
manuscript  in  1593,  and  published  in  the  following  year,  may 
be  said  to  have  given  the  finishing  stroke  to  the  discomfiture  of 
the  League.  Four  editions  of  this  curious  work  were  exhausted 
in  four  weeks.  It  was  the  joint  production  of  six  ingenious 
authors ; — Leroy,  a  canon  of  Eouen ;  Gillot,  a  canon  of  the 
Sainte  Chapelle  at  Paris ;  Pierre  Pithou,  a  well-known  advocate 
of  the  Parliament;  Nicolas  Kapin,  Florent  Chretien,  and  a 
Protestant  named  Passerat.  Their  chief  object  was  to  throw 
ridicule  upon  the  meeting  of  the  States-General  lately  summoned 
by  Mayenne.  The  principal  personages  who  figured  there  are 
introduced  under  slightly  disguised  names,  and  the  harangues 
of  the  Cardinal-Legate  Gaetano,  Cardinal  de  Pelleve,  Bishop 
Rose,  and  above  all,  of  Aubray,  the  mouth-piece  of  the  Tiers-' 
Etat,  are  parodied  with  infinite  spirit  and  humour ;  the  peculiar 
style  of  each  orator  being  closely  imitated,  while  at  the  same 
time  they  are  made  to  commit  themselves  with  such  ludicrous 
simplicity,  that  the  general  effect  is  irresistible.  Sarcasm  has 
ever  been  a  weapon  of  peculiar  potency  in  France;  and  the 
*  Satyre  Menippee '  contributed  scarcely  less  to  the  ultimate 
triumph  of  Henry  IV.  than  his  most  brilliant  achievements  in 
the  field  of  battle. 

Almost  at  the  same  moment  Pierre  Pithou,  the  parliamentary 
advocate  just  named  in  connection  with  the  '  Satyre  Menippee,' 
published  his  celebrated  treatise  on  the  '  Liberties  of  the  Gal- 
lican Church.'  In  estimating  the  merits  of  this  performance 
we  must  remember  that  it  dates  from  an  epoch  when  the  pas- 
sions of  party  raged  on  all  sides  with  reckless  violence.  The 
trite  proverb  that  "  extremes  reproduce  each  other  "  has  never 
been  more  notably  verified  than  in  the  history  of  the  conflict 
between  Ultramontanism  and  Gallicanism.  The  League,  under 
the  pressure  of  a  danger  which  seemed  to  threaten  the  very 
vitals  of  the  Church,  exaggerated  the  powers  of  the  Roman 
Pontiff,  both  spiritual  and  temporal,  to  an  extent  which  had 


*  Cunt  in.  de  Fleitry,  Liv.  clxxx.  69. 

o  2 


190  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  ITT. 

never  been  surpassed,  if  it  had  been  equalled,  in  days  when  the 
monarchies  of  Europe  were  comparatively  feeble  and  insecure. 
But  when  the  League  lost  credit,  and  the  Bourbons  were  in 
the  ascendant,  there  was  a  manifest  temptation  to  exhibit  the 
opposite  theory  in  stronger  colours  than  the  facts  of  history  pre- 
cisely warranted ;  and  Gallioan  writers  were  not  slow  to  improve 
the  opportunity.  Pithou  observes,  in  the  dedication  of  his  book 
to  Henry  IV.,  that,  amid  the  confusion  and  disorders  which 
overspread  the  kingdom,  some  men,  through  malice  and  ambi- 
tion, calumniated  —  others,  through  ignorance  and  apathy, 
despised — those  noble  rights  and  that  precious  Palladium  which 
had  been  religiously  preserved  by  the  wisest  of  their  ancestors, 
under  the  title  of  the  liberties  of  the  Gallicaii  Church.  In  order 
to  refresh  the  memory  of  the  existing  generation,  and  to  hand 
down  to  posterity  truths  which  he  considered  so  invaluable,  he 
had  undertaken  to  compile  the  present  treatise  ;  which  he  humbly 
inscribes  to  the  king,  inasmuch  as,  in  his  capacity  of  "  eldest 
son  of  the  Church,"  and  in  an  especial  manner  as  patron  and 
protector  of  the  Church  of  his  own  kingdom,  he  had  the  first 
and  principal  interest  in  the  matters  therein  handled. 

The  volume  consists  of  a  collection  of  traditions,  precedents, 
and  maxims,  recognised  by  the  French  law  courts  as  their  rule 
of  practice  in  all  causes  affecting  the  relations  between  the  tem- 
poral and  the  ecclesiastical  powers.  These  are  comprised  in 
eighty-three  articles.  They  are  all  founded  upon  two  general 
principles,  which  are  thus  laid  down  in  articles  IV.  and  V. 
First,  the  Popes  have  no  authority  in  temporal  concerns  within 
the  realm  of  France ;  and,  should  they  assume  any  such,  the 
subjects  of  the  French  Crown,  including  the  clergy,  are  not 
bound  to  pay  regard  to  them.  Secondly,  although  the  Pope  is 
acknowledged  to  be  supreme  in  things  spiritual,  yet  in  France 
that  supremacy  is  not  absolute  or  boundless,  but  limited  by  the 
canons  and  decrees  of  the  ancient  Councils  received  in  this 
kingdom ;  "  and  it  is  in  this,"  continues  Pithou,  "  that  the  liberty 
of  the  Gallican  Church  primarily  consists,  as  the  University  of 
Paris  publicly  testified  in  opposing  the  reception  of  Cardinal 
d'Amboise  as  papal  legate."  But  when  he  proceeds  to  interpret 
and  apply  these  two  fundamental  maxims,  the  author  is  con- 
ducted to  certain  conclusions  which,  however  acceptable  to  the 
Crown,  the  Parliament,  and  other  lay  authorities,  were  never 


A.D.  1594.       PIERRE  PITHOU  ON  "GALLICAN  LIBERTIES."       197 


sanctioned  by  the  Episcopate,  and  those  who  had  a  legitimate 
right  to  speak  in  the  name  of  the  Church.  The  manifest  scope 
of  many  of  Pithou's  propositions  is  to  intrude  the  secular  juris- 
diction into  the  ecclesiastical  sphere.  This  appears  especially  in 
the  articles  relating  to  the  powers  of  provincial  Councils  sum- 
moned by  the  king,  to  the  "  regale,"  to  the  practice  of  "  appels 
comme  d'abus,"  and  to  the  right  of  the  civil  courts  to  give  abso- 
lution "  ad  cautelarn,"  under  certain  circumstances,  from  spiritual 
censures.  In  short,  the  work  of  Pithou  must  be  regarded  as  the 
Parliamentary  version  of  the  Gallican  liberties.  For  the  eccle- 
siastical view  of  them  we  must  consult  ecclesiastical  authorities ; 
those  great  masters  of  French  constitutional  law  who  adorned 
the  seventeenth  century — Pierre  de  Marca,  Edmond  Richer, 
Louis  Thomassin,  Bossuet,  Claude  Fleury,  and  Ellies-Dupiu. 

The  League,  even  after  its  decisive  defeat,  and  the  fonnal 
submission  of  its  leaders  to  the  Bourbon  Government,  continued 
to  agitate  the  country  by  means  of  its  incorrigible  preachers, 
and  was  more  or  less  a  source  of  disquietude  throughout  the 
reign  of  Henry  IV.  The  king,  though  averse  to  severity,  was 
compelled  to  take  measures  for  repressing  the  outrageous  scur- 
rilities which  disgraced  the  pulpits ;  and  Bishop  Eose,  the  cure's 
Aubry,  Cueilly,  Boucher,  Pelletier,  and  Hamilton,  Filleul,  prior 
of  the  Carmelites,  and  some  others,  were  deprived  of  their  pre- 
ferments and  banished  from  Paris.*  Guincestre  and  Pelletier 
professed  themselves  repentant,  and  were  pardoned.  Eose  was, 
after  a  time,  restored  to  his  see,  but  was  ungrateful  enough  to 
commit  fresh  acts  of  disloyalty,  for  which  the  Parliament  in- 
flicted upon  him  the  humiliation  of  a  public  amende.  The 
Jesuits,  who  had  been  foremost  throughout  in  the  rebel  cause, 
were  denounced  by  the  University  to  the  Parliament,  con- 
demned, after  a  splendid  display  of  indignant  oratory  by  the 
advocate  Antoine  Arnauld,|  and  sentenced  to  banishment  from 
France.  Two  of  the  Order,  Guignard  and  Gueret,  were  con- 
victed, though  it  appears  unjustly,  of  being  concerned  in  an 
attempt  on  the  king's  life  ;  the  former  \  was  capitally  punished, 
the  latter  banished  from  the  realm  for  life. 


*  See  the  list  of  the  proscribed  in 
L'Estoile,  Journal  de  Henri  IV.,  torn, 
iii.  p.  40.  (Petitot,  torn,  xlvii.) 

t  Me"mofres  de  la  Ligue,  torn.  vi.  p. 


173.    Palma-Cayet,  Chron.  Noven.,  Liv. 
vi. 

J  Guignard    had,    no    doubt,    held 
seditious    and    treasonable     language, 


198 


.  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  III. 


But  the  most  mischievous  result  of  the  League  was  this ; 
that,  long  after  it  was  extinguished  as  a  political  faction,  some 
of  its  favourite  doctrines  were  perpetuated  by  a  race  of  contro- 
versialists of  no  small  ability  and  zeal,  and  that  interminable 
conflicts  were  thus  provoked  with  the  divines  of  the  opposite 
school,  greatly  to  the  detriment  of  the  Church  and  of  religion. 
The  transcendental  theory  of  the  Papacy  as  dominating  over  all 
earthly  thrones — this  dominion  being  held  to  include  the  right 
to  depose  delinquent  princes  on  the  score  of  heresy,  schism,  or 
other  spiritual  crime;  the  tremendous  corollary  that  princes 
thus  deposed  may  lawfully  be  put  to  death;  the  necessity  of 
waging  war  to  the  last  extremity  for  the  destruction  of  heretics ; 
the  personal  infallibility  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  in  determining 
matters  of  faith  and  morals; — these  convictions  survived  the 
dissolution  of  the  League,  and  were  continually  reproduced, 
especially  in  the  writings  and  instructions  of  the  Society  of 
Jesus.  Eoyalist  and  orthodox  pens  were  never  wanting  to 
refute  them ;  and  the  details  of  this  chronic  warfare  occupy  a 
considerable  space  in  the  history  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
The  assaults  of  Mariana  and  Martin  Becan  were  repulsed  by 
William  Barclay ;  the  great  Bellarmine  found  a  redoubtable 
antagonist  in  Edmond  Eicher ;  the  University  of  Louvain  ful- 
minated its  censures  against  the  Jesuit  Lessius ;  Father  Garasse 
writhed  under  the  scathing  satire  of  St.  Cyran.  In  short,  the 
controversial  history  of  France  in  the  seventeenth  century  (and 
it  was  scarcely  less  controversial  than  the  age  preceding)  may 
be  characterized  as  that  of  a  vigorous  reaction  on  the  one  side 
against  the  pestilent  fallacies  of  the  League,  and  on  the  other 
of  a  struggle  in  defence  of  them,  sustained — sometimes  openly, 
sometimes  covertly,  but  always  substantially — by  the  disciples 
of  Ignatius  Loyola. 


but  language  of  that  kind  was  con- 
slantly  in  the  mouths  of  all  the  zealots 
of  the  League,  and,  moreover,  it  was 
unfair  to  take  note  of  such  offences 
after  the  act  of  amnesty  which  the 
king  published  on  entering  Paris. 
One  of  his  sentiments  was  the  follow- 
ing :  "  Que,  en  1'an  1572,  au  jour  Sainct 
Barthe'le'my,  si  on  eust  saigne  la  veine 
basilique,  nous  ne  fussions  tontbez  de 
fievre  en  chaud  mal,  comme  nous  ex- 
perimeutions."  Another  was  to  this 


effect :  "  Que  le  Bearnois,  ores  que 
converty  a  la  foy  Catholique,  seroit 
traicte  plus  doucemeut  qu'il  ne  meri- 
toit  si  on  lui  donnait  la  couronne 
monachale  et  quelque  couvent  bien 
reforms',  pour  aller  faire  penitence 
de  tant  de  maux  qu'il  a  fait  a  la 
France,  et  remercier  Dieu  de  ce  qu'il 
lui  avoit  fait  la  grace  de  se  recoig- 
noistre  avaut  la  mort." — Palma-Cayet, 
Chron.  Koven.,  Liv.  vi.  (Petitot,  torn, 
xlii.  p.  384.) 


A.D.  1593.  CONVERSION  OF  HENRY  IV.  199 


CHAPTEE   IV. 

IT  has  been  too  generally  taken  for  granted  that  the  reconcilia- 
tion of  Henry  IV.  with  the  Church  of  Rome  was  a  mere  act 
of  political  expediency — an  act  of  violence  to  conscientious  con- 
viction. Any  step  of  this  kind,  taken  at  a  moment  when  it 
manifestly  coincides  with  worldly  interest,  inevitably  excites 
suspicion ;  and  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  juncture  at  which 
the  King  announced  his  conversion  was  ill-chosen  for  inspiring 
belief  in  his  sincerity.  But  it  were  hard  measure  to  charge 
him  with  deliberate  hypocrisy ;  to  suppose  that  he  knelt  at  the 
altar  of  St.  Denis  with  a  lie  in  his  mouth  and  double-dealing  in 
his  heart.  The  truth  was  probably  this.  Henry  could  not  help 
sympathizing  to  a  great  extent  with  the  Huguenot  cause  ;  he  was 
bound  to  it  by  early  education,  by  the  memory  of  many  a 
gallantly-contested  field  of  battle,  and  by  close  ties  of  personal 
friendship.  But  Protestantism  as  a  system  of  doctrine  was,  to 
say  the  least,  indifferent  to  him.  In  renouncing  it,  therefore,  he 
cannot  be  said,  religiously  speaking,  to  have  violated  the  law  of 
conscience.  On  the  contrary,  it  would  seem  that  his  religious 
instincts  attracted  him  strongly  towards  Catholicism.  Palrna- 
Cayet  tells  us  that  he  remarked  to  one  of  his  domestic  chaplains, 
before  his  abjuration,  "  I  cannot  see  either  order  or  devotion  in 
this  religion  (the  Reformed).  It  consists  in  nothing  but  a 
preachment  (un  presche),  and  this  only  means  a  tongue  which 
can  speak  good  French.  Now,  I  have  a  notion  that  we  ought 
to  believe  that  the  Body  of  our  Saviour  is  actually  present  in 
the  Sacrament;  otherwise  all  that  one  does  in  religion  is  no 
better  than  a  bare  ceremony."*  The  same  annalist  mentions 
that  "  God  had  long  previously  impressed  the  king's  mind  with 
regard  to  the  reality  of  the  Eucharistic  Presence,"  and  that 
"  the  only  points  upon  which  he  was  still  in  doubt  were  those 


Pulma-Cayet,  Chronol.  Noven.,  an  1593.    (Petitot,  torn,  xli.) 


200  THE  GALLICAX  CHURCH.  CHAP.  IV. 

of  the  invocation  of  saints,  auricular  confession,  and  the  autho- 
rity of  the  Pope."  It  was  accordingly  on  these  three  latter 
doctrines  that  Henry  consulted  the  Catholic  divines  at  the 
conference  held  at  Mantes  on  the  23rd  of  July,  1593.  The 
clergy  who  took  part  in  it  were  the  Archbishop  of  Bourges,  the 
Bishops  of  Nantes,  Le  Mans,  and  Chartres,  Duperron  bishop- 
designate  of  Evreux,  and  the  cures  of  Paris  Benoit,  Morennes, 
and  Chavaguac,  who,  from  the  first,  had  steadily  supported  the 
Bourbon  cause  in  opposition  to  the  League.  The  royal  cate- 
chumen is  said  to  have  astonished  these  professed  theologians 
by  the  acuteness  of  his  questions  and  the  ability  with  which  he 
sustained  the  argument.  They  remained  in  deliberation  for 
seven  hoars ;  at  last  the  king  said,  "  You  have  not  altogether 
satisfied  me ;  but  the  state  of  the  case  is  this  :  I  now  place  my 
soul  in  your  hands ;  take  good  care  how  you  deal  with  it ;  for 
wherever  you  conduct  me,  there  I  shall  stay  till  the  hour  of 
my  death,  and  thai  I  most  solemnly  protest  to  you."  *  There 
is  nothing  in.  such  language  that  savours  of  levity,  far  less  of 
cant  or  conscious  duplicity. 

The  sagacious  Sully  (himself  a  Protestant),  who  had  better 
opportunities  than  any  other  person  of  knowing  the  real  state 
of  the  king's  mind,  has  recorded  his  belief  that,  while  Henry 
was  doubtless  influenced  at  first  by  political  considerations,  he 
became  persuaded  in  the  end  that  the  Catholic  religion  was  the 
surer  way  of  salvation.f  He  adds  that,  from  the  natural 
ingenuousness  of  the  king's  character,  he  would  ill  have  sup- 
ported, had  the  case  been  otherwise,  such  a  disguise  of  his  true 
sentiments  for  the  rest  of  his  life. 

Henry  made  his  public  abjuration  of  Calvinism  in  the  Abbey 
Church  of  St.  Denis  on  Sunday  the  25th  of  July,  1593 ;  and 
was  thereupon  absolved  provisionally  (ad  cautelam)  and  re- 
stored to  the  communion  of  the  Church,  by  the  Archbishop  of 
Bourges.  But  although  this  event  gave  him  at  once  a  prestige 
and  a  vantage  ground  which  nothing  else  could  have  procured, 
he  found  himself  still  surrounded  by  manifold  embarrassments. 
The  Pope's  Legate  declared  the  proceedings  at  St.  Denis  null 
and  void,  inasmuch  as  the  French  prelates  had  acted  without 


*  L'Estoile,  Journal  de  Henri  IV. 

t  Sully,  Economies  Royales,  torn.  i.  p.  483.    Paris,  1822. 


A.I>.  1591. 


BOUCHER'S  SERMONS  AT  ST.  MERRY. 


201 


authority  from  Kome.  Clement  VIII.  spoke  of  the  king's 
conversion  in  terms  of  bitter  contumely :  "  I  would  not 
believe  Navarre  to  be  a  Catholic,"  said  he  to  the  Duke  of 
Nevers,  "  unless  an  angel  should  come  down  from  heaven  and 
whisper  it  in  my  ear.  As  for  the  Catholics  of  his  party,  they 
are  disloyal  to  religion  and  to  the  Crown;  they  are  but  the 
bastards  of  the  bondmaid;  the  Leaguers  are  the  legitimate 
children,  the  true  pillars  and  buttresses  of  the  Catholic  reli- 
gion."* The  Court  of  Rome  showed  extreme  reluctance  to 
grant  the  absolution  which  was  humbly  craved  on  behalf  of 
Henry  by  his  envoys ;  and  the  protracted  delays  in  this  affair 
were  seriously  injurious,  since  a  plausible  justification  was  thus 
given  to  the  continued  enmity  of  the  King  of  Spain  and  the 
fanatics  of  the  League.  Upon  this  pretext  the  king's  life  was 
twice  attempted  by  assassins.  The  deed  was  openly  defended 
on  the  ground  that  he  was  no  true  member  of  the  Church,  and 
not  recognised  by  the  Pope ;  consequently  his  murder  was  a 
lawful  and  a  meritorious  act.f 

Of  the  rancorous  hatred  borne  to  Henry  by  the  fanatical 
priesthood,  even  after  his  restoration  to  Catholic  communion, 
we  have  a  curious  proof  in  the  series  of  nine  sermons  "  Sur  la 
simulee  conversion  de  Henri  de  Bourbon,"  preached  by  Jean 
Boucher  in  the  Church  of  St.  Merry. 

These  were  published  with  the  official  approbation  of  the 
Sorbonne,  in  which  it  is  stated  that,  "  besides  being  grave  and 
learned,  they  contain  a  wholesome  doctrine,  and  an  able  expo- 
sure of  false  Catholicism  and  impious  *  Politicism,'  and  thus 
confirm  in  a  wonderful  manner  the  wavering  faith  of  numbers 
of  Catholics  in  these  unhappy  times."  The  discourses  abound 
with  the  foulest  and  most  malignant  abuse,  intermixed  with 
passages  of  considerable  eloquence,  and  with  a  certain  display 
of  erudition.  The  main  object  of  the  preacher  is  to  establish, 
from  every  possible  point  of  view,  the  illegality  and  invalidity 
of  the  absolution  pronounced  by  the  Archbishop  of  Bourges. 
Collaterally  he  embraces  a  wide  range  of  topics ;  he  defends 
the  principle  of  insurrection ;  asserts  the  plenary  power  of  the 
Estates  of  the  realm  to  regulate  the  succession  to  the  throne 


*  Palma-Cayet,    Chronolog.    Noven., 
Liv.  v.  p.  49.     (Petitot,  torn,  xlii.) 
t  Several    other    acts   of    violence 


against  Henry's  person  are  mentioned 
by  the  contemporary  writers. 


202  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  IV. 

and  the  form  of  government;  identifies  the  action  of  the 
League  with  that  of  the  Church ;  exalts  the  Pope  to  an  abso- 
lute supremacy,  not  only  in  spirituals  but  indirectly  in  tem- 
porals also;  and  combines  an  extravagant  advocacy  of  the 
rights  of  the  people  with  maxims  of  religious  intolerance 
involving  the  duty  of  active  persecution. 

A  reply  to  Boucher's  Sermons  was  published  by  Claude 
d'Angennes,  Bishop  of  Le  Mans ;  in  which  he  proved,  by 
copious  references  to  ecclesiastical  canons  and  tradition,  that 
the  power  of  absolution  in  cases  of  heresy  has  been  reserved  in 
all  ages  to  the  bishops,  independently  of  the  See  of  Eome. 

It  was  a  special  object  with  the  Roman  curia  that  Henry 
should  solicit,  not  only  absolution,  but  " rehabilitation"  that  is, 
the  restitution  of  his  rights  as  a  temporal  sovereign  ;  which,  of 
course,  would  have  implied  the  admission  that  the  Pope  had 
power  to  deprive  him  of  those  rights,  and  restore  them  when  he 
thought  proper.  This  point  the  French  commissioners,  Car- 
dinal d'Ossat  and  Du  Perron,  positively  declined  to  concede. 
Clement  insisted  on  it  with  great  pertinacity,  but,  at  length, 
found  it  necessary  to  yield,  and  ended  by  waiving  it.  It  was 
represented  to  him  that  if  he  showed  himself  obdurate  and 
intractable,  Henry  of  Bourbon  might  lose  patience,  and  France 
might  be  provoked  to  withdraw  altogether  from  the  obedience 
of  Eome,  after  the  melancholy  example  of  England.  It  appears, 
indeed,  that  Henry  had  already  been  urged  by  some  of  his 
ablest  counsellors  to  establish  the  Gallican  Church  upon  the 
footing  of  national  independence,  under  the  presidency  of  a 
patriarch,  nominated  by  himself.  These  and  other  con- 
siderations induced  the  Pope  to  take  a  more  reasonable  tone  ; 
and,  after  some  further  discussion,  the  conditions  of  the  Abso- 
lution were  finally  arranged.  They  were  as  follows : — That  the 
Catholic  religion  and  worship  should  be  re-established  in 
Beam,  and  other  localities  where  it  had  been  suppressed  since 
the  year  1585.  That  all  ecclesiastical  benefices  and  property 
which  had  been  conferred  upon  heretics,  laymen,  and  other 
disqualified  persons,  should  be  restored  to  the  orthodox  clergy. 
That  the  young  Prince  of  Conde  (at  that  time  heir-presumptive 
to  the  throne,  the  king  having  no  legitimate  children)  should 
be  educated  in  the  Catholic  faith.  That  the  king  should  give 
the  preference  to  Catholics  in  the  distribution  of  public  offices 


A.D.  1595.         CEREMONY  OF  HENRY'S  ABSOLUTION.  203 

and  dignities,  and  should  let  it  be  plainly  seen  that  he  desired 
the  true  Church  to  be  dominant  throughout  the  kingdom. 
That  the  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  as  well  of  discipline 
as  of  doctrine,  should  be  received  and  executed  in  France.  To 
this  latter  stipulation  the  French  ambassadors  annexed  a 
noticeable  modifying  clause ; — "  with  the  exception  of  any 
article  which  could  not  be  executed  without  causing  disturbance 
in  the  kingdom" 

Henry  further  promised,  by  way  of  "  works  of  satisfaction," 
to  hear  mass  regularly  every  day,  and  recite  certain  specified 
prayers ;  to  approach  the  sacraments  of  penance  and  the  Eucharist 
at  least  four  times  a  year ;  and  to  establish  convents  and  nun- 
neries in  different  parts  of  the  kingdom.*  According  to  Sully's 
account,  it  was  moreover  secretly  covenanted  that  the  banished 
Jesuits  should  be  recalled  to  France. 

All  preliminaries  being  adjusted,  the  ceremony  of  the  abso- 
lution took  place  with  great  parade  and  solemnity  on  the  17th 
of  September,  1595.  The  Pope  seated  himself  on  a  throne  raised 
on  a  lofty  platform  in  front  of  St.  Peter's,  the  doors  of  the 
cathedral  being  closed.  Henry's  representatives  Cardinal  d'Ossat 
and  Du  Perron,  Bishop  of  Evreux,  prostrated  themselves  at  the 
feet  of  the  Holy  Father,  and  in  the  name  of  their  Sovereign  ab- 
jured all  heresy,  swore  upon  the  Gospels  to  maintain  the  true 
faith  inviolate,  accepted  the  above-named  conditions  of  peniten- 
tial discipline,  and  promised  the  same  submission  and  obedience 
to  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  that  had  always  been  paid  by  the  Most 
Christian  kings. 

The  choir  then  intoned  the  Miserere ;  and  during  the  per- 
formance the  Pope  administered  to  the  kneeling  prelates  a  gentle 
symbolical  chastisement  with  a  slender  staff.  At  its  conclusion 
he  pronounced  the  impressive  words  of  absolution  in  due  form ; 
whereupon  the  great  multitude  who  thronged  the  square  of  St. 
Peter's  rent  the  air  with  acclamations.  The  Pope,  turning  to 
the  French  envoys,  charged  them  to  tell  their  master  that, 
since  he  was  now  re-admitted  into  the  fold  of  the  Church  Mili- 
tant, it  remained  for  him  to  merit,  by  soundness  of  faith  and 
fruitfulness  in  good  works,  a  glorious  entrance  hereafter  into 
the  Church  triumphant.t 

*  De  Thou,  Liv.  113.  Contin.  de  I  t  Palma-Cayet,  Chron.  Noven.,  Liv. 
Fleury,  Liv.  clxxxi.  37.  |  vii.  (Petitot,  torn,  xliii.) 


204  THE  GALLIC  AN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  IV. 

This  authoritative  recognition  of  Henry  of  Bourbon  as  the 
"  eldest  son  of  the  Church  "  deprived  the  Leaguers,  the  "  Tiers- 
parti,"  and  all  other  malcontents  among  the  Catholics,  of  every 
conceivable  pretext  for  further  disturbing  the  peace  of  France. 
They  accordingly  laid  down  their  arms,  and  signified  their  ad- 
hesion to  the  king's  government,  on  all  sides ;  and  within  four 
months  after  the  absolution  at  Home,  the  definitive  treaty  was 
signed  with  the  Duke  of  Mayenne  at  Folembrai,  which  formally 
put  an  end  to  the  existence  of  the  League. 

But  with  the  Huguenots  Henry  had  much  more  difficulty. 
They  continued  to  show  themselves  sullen,  jealous,  factious, 
unreasonable.  Their  leaders — Eohan,  Bouillon,  La  Treinoille, — 
had  abandoned  the  court,  and  were  agitating  in  various  parts 
of  the  country  for  a  renewal  of  the  civil  war.  In  some  of  the 
most  critical  emergencies  of  the  struggle  with  Spain — such  for 
instance  as  the  siege  of  La  Fere  and  the  capture  of  Amiens — 
the  Protestants  remained  stubbornly  deaf  to  the  appeals  of 
their  sovereign  for  assistance ;  indeed  his  moments  of  embar- 
rassment and  distress  were  precisely  those  which  they  chose  for 
worrying  him  with  fresh  demands  and  exorbitant  pretensions. 
No  sooner  was  it  known  that  Henry  had  opened  negoeiations 
for  peace  with  the  King  of  Spain,  than  the  Huguenot  synod 
appointed  delegates  to  proceed  forthwith  to  England  and  Hol- 
land, for  the  purpose  of  intriguing  with  Elizabeth  and  the 
Prince  of  Orange  to  defeat  the  proposed  treaty.  Such  conduct 
was  the  more  unjustifiable,  inasmuch  as  the  Kefornaers  had  in 
reality  very  little  to  complain  of  at  this  period.  The  edict  of 
1577,  which  was  legally  in  full  force,  secured  to  them  substan- 
tial toleration,  and  even  a  considerable  share  of  political  power ; 
and  if  that  edict  was  not  always  perfectly  observed,  the  cause  lay, 
for  the  most  part,  in  the  violent  proceedings  of  the  Huguenots 
themselves  in  those  districts  where  their  creed  predominated, 
and  in  the  general  distrust  which  they  inspired  as  dangerous 
revolutionary  agitators. 

Further  concessions,  however,  were  indispensable  under  the 
pressure  of  existing  circumstances.  In  March,  1597,  Henry 
appointed  as  his  commissioners  Count  Gaspard  de  Schomberg, 
the  historian  Jacques  Auguste  de  Thou  (one  of  the  Presidents 
of  the  Parliament  of  Paris),  and  the  Councillors  of  State  De 
Vic  and  Calignon ;  who  immediately  proceeded  to  treat  for  a 


A.D.  1598.  THE  EDICT  OF  NANTES.  205 

final  settlement  with  the  Protestant  Assembly  sitting  atLoudun^ 
Several  months  elapsed  before  a  satisfactory  understanding  could 
be  arrived  at ;  and  it  was  not  till  the  15th  of  April,  1598,  that 
Henry  was  enabled  to  put  the  seal  to  this  great  work  of  national 
pacification  by  publishing  the  Edict  of  Nantes. 

The  preamble  to  this  most  important  document,  the  Magna 
Charta  of  Protestant  liberty  in  France,  specifies,  curiously 
enough,  as  the  royal  motive  for  issuing  it,  the  necessity  of 
completely  and  securely  re-establishing  the  Catholic  religion 
in  those  localities  where  it  had  been  abolished  during  the  last 
troubles;  viz.,  Beam,  La  Eochelle,  Nismes,  Montauban,  &c. 
"  Now  that  it  had  pleased  God  to  grant  repose  to  the  kingdom 
from  the  destructions  of  civil  war,  the  king  felt  it  his  duty 
to  make  provision  for  the  public  worship  and  service  of  God 
among  all  classes  of  his  subjects ;  and  if  it  was  impossible  at 
present  that  all  could  be  brought  to  agree  in  one  and  the  same 
external  form  of  worship,  at  all  events  there  might  be  uni- 
formity of  spirit  and  purpose ;  and  such  regulations  might  be 
adopted  as  should  obviate  all  danger  of  public  disturbance  or 
collision.  Accordingly  he  had  determined  to  enact  and  pro- 
mulgate a  law  upon  this  subject — universal,  distinct,  positive, 
and  absolute — a  perpetual  and  irrevocable  edict,  and  he  prayed 
God  that  his  subjects  might  be  led  to  accept  it,  as  the  surest 
guarantee  of  their  union  and  tranquillity,  and  of  the  re-estab- 
lishment of  the  French  empire  in  its  ancient  power  and 
splendour." 

Then  follow  the  enacting  clauses,  .comprised  in  ninety-two 
articles.  Those  who  professed  the  "  so-called  Eeformed  Eeli- 
gion "  were  to  enjoy  henceforth  full  and  complete  liberty  of 
conscience,  and  the  free  exercise  of  their  public  worship  through- 
out the  realm  of  France,  though  not  without  certain  restrictions. 

All  seigneurs  possessing  the  right  of  "  haute  justice  "  might 
assemble  for  worship  with  their  families,  their  tenants,  and  any 
others  whom  they  chose  to  invite ;  land-owners  of  a  lower  grade 
were  not  to  hold  meetings  consisting  of  more  than  thirty  persons. 
Huguenots  were  to  be  freely  admitted  to  all  colleges,  schools, 
and  hospitals  ;  they  might  found,  endow,  and  maintain,  educa- 
tional and  charitable  institutions;  and  their  religious  books 
might  be  published  in  all  places  where  their  worship  was 
authorized.  They  were  to  be  eligible  to  all  public  employments 


206  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  IV. 

on  equal  terms  with  Catholics,  and  on  accepting  office  were  not 
to  be  bound  to  take  any  oaths,  or  attend  any  ceremonies  repul- 
sive to  their  conscience.  A  new  court,  called  the  "  Chambre  de 
1'Edit,"  was  instituted  in  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  composed  of 
a  president  and  sixteen  councillors,  of  whom  one,  or  two  at  the 
most,  were  to  be  Protestants.  Other  similar  courts  were  estab- 
lished in  Guienne,  Languedoc,  and  Dauphine.  These  were  to 
take  cognizance  of  all  cases  arising  between  Protestants  and 
Catholics. 

Besides  the  privilege  granted  to  the  holders  of  fiefs,  the 
Reformed  worship  was  legalised  in  one  town  or  village  in  every 
bailliage  throughout  France.  In  certain  specified  places,  how- 
ever, it  was  altogether  prohibited ;  at  the  court,  or  residence  of 
the  sovereign  for  the  time  being ;  at  Paris,  and  within  a  radius 
of  five  leagues  round  the  capital ;  and  in  all  military  camps, 
with  the  exception  of  the  personal  quarters  of  a  Protestant 
general.  It  was  also  excluded  from  Reims,  Dijon,  Soissons, 
Beauvais,  Sens,  Nantes,  Joinville,  and  other  towns,  in  virtue 
of  separate  arrangements  made  by  Henry  with  the  local 
nobles.  The  Huguenots  were  enjoined  to  show  outward  respect 
to  the  Catholic  religion,  to  observe  its  holy-days,  and  to  pay 
tithes  to  its  clergy.  They  were  to  desist  from  all  political 
negociations  and  cabals,  both  within  and  beyond  the  realm ; 
their  provincial  assemblies  were  to  be  forthwith  dissolved  ;  and 
the  king  engaged  to  license  the  holding  of  a  representative 
synod  once  in  three  years,  with  the  privilege  of  addressing  the 
Crown  on  the  condition  of  the  Reformed  body,  and  petitioning 
for  redress  of  grievances. 

There  were,  in  addition,  fifty  secret  articles,  which  did  not 
appear  on  the  face  of  the  edict.  By  one  of  these  the  king  con- 
firmed the  Huguenots  in  possession  (for  eight  years)  of  all  the 
cautionary  towns  which  had  been  granted  to  them  by  the  treaty 
1577.  Several  of  these  were  places  of  considerable  strength 
and  importance;  including  La  Rochelle,  Montauban,  Nismes, 
Montpellier,  Grenoble,  Lectoure,  Niort,  &c.  The  expense  of 
maintaining  the  Huguenot  garrisons  was  to  be  defrayed  by  a 
royal  grant  of  80,000  crowns  per  annum. 

That  the  Edict  of  Nantes  should  have  excited  keen  dissatis- 
faction and  determined  opposition  among  the  Catholic  subjects 
of  Henry,  is,  of  course,  no  matter  of  surprise.  The  prelates, 


A.D.  1599.  THE  EDICT  OF  NANTES.  207 

the  clergy,  the  University,  and  the  parliaments  both  of  Paris 
and  the  provinces,  remonstrated  against  it  in  the  most  energetic 
and  unmeasured  language  ;  and  it  required  all  the  authority, 
resolution,  judgment,  and  eloquence  of  Henry,  together  with 
the  support  of  his  most  enlightened  counsellors,  to  bring  the 
affair  to  a  successful  conclusion.  The  Parliament  of  Paris  per- 
sisting in  its  refusal  to  register  the  edict,  the  magistrates  were 
summoned  to  the  Louvre,  where  the  king  addressed  them  in  an 
admirable  speech,  full  of  mingled  dignity,  pathos,  and  cogent 
reasoning,  not  without  occasional  touches  of  menace  and  reproach. 
This,  it  may  be  hoped,  produced  conviction ;  at  any  rate  it  was 
followed  by  speedy  compliance.  The  edict  was  registered,  and 
thus  became  part  of  the  statute  law  of  France,  on  the  25th  of 
February,  1599. 

There  can  be  no  question  that,  in  publishing  the  Edict  of 
Nantes,  Henry  IV.  was  actuated  to  a  great  extent  by  anxiety 
to  secure  to  his  Huguenot  subjects  the  blessings  of  a  real,  effec- 
tual, and  permanent  toleration.  But  at  the  same  time  it  is 
certain  that  this  was  not  his  only  motive  in  taking  that  step. 
His  views  of  policy  .were  broader,  more  comprehensive,  more 
truly  statesmanlike.  He  knew  that  Protestantism  in  France 
was  a  struggle  even  more  for  political,  than  for  religious, 
power  and  predominance ;  and  his  grand  object  was  to  bring 
the  contest  to  an  end,  by  depriving  the  Reformers  of  every 
reasonable  pretext  for  disaffection.  If  they  were  once  content 
as  to  their  civil  pretensions,  he  was  convinced  that  they  would 
be  comparatively  harmless  as  a  sect  of  dissenters  from  the 
established  creed. 

So  long  as  they  were  persecuted,  so  long  as  they  were  bur- 
dened by  vexatious  disabilities,  and  separated  by  invidious  dis- 
tinctions from  the  mass  of  their  fellow-citizens ;  so  long  had 
the  Huguenots  steadily  increased  and  multiplied,  until  their 
existence  had  become  a  standing  and  most  serious  peril  to  the 
tranquillity  of  France.  Henry's  plan  was  to  reduce  them  to 
submission,  loyalty,  and  insignificance,  simply  by  giving  them 
nothing  to  complain  of.  He  had  witnessed  the  wretched  results 
of  bigotry,  tyranny,  unjust  legislation,  sectarian  rancour  and 
hatred ;  and  he  was  resolved,  now  that  he  had  the  opportunity, 
to  try  the  effects  of  an  opposite  system — of  charity,  equity, 
forbearance,  and  impartial  respect  for  the  rights  of  conscience. 


208  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  IV. 

In  taking  this  course,  the  king  believed  that  he  was  consulting 
the  true  interests  of  the  French  monarchy,  of  society  at  large, 
and  of  the  Catholic  Church  itself. 

He  was  quite  prepared,  however,  to  find  the  proposed  measure 
vehemently  censured  and  resisted  in  certain  quarters,  and  espe- 
cially by  the  Court  of  Kome. 

In  his  communications  with  the  Pope  at  this  period  he  took 
especial  pains  to  justify  himself  beforehand  for  a  measure  which 
must  naturally  appear  so  suspicious  in  the  eyes  of  the  Holy 
Father,  and  to  dispel  the  apprehensions  excited  by  it.  "  If  I 
am  compelled,"  he  writes  in  March,  1598,  "to  make  greater 
concessions  to  the  Huguenots  than  those  of  the  edict  of  1577, 
let  his  Holiness  be  assured  that  I  do  it  solely  for  the  purpose 
of  avoiding  a  more  serious  evil,  and  with  a  view  to  protect  and 
strengthen  the  Catholic  Church  to  a  corresponding  extent; 
that  I  do  it  to  appease  and  satisfy  the  so-called  Eeformers,  and 
by  that  means  to  defeat  the  more  easily  the  designs  of  the 
ambitious  and  factious  among  them,  who  are  doing  their  utmost 
to  make  the  rest  despair  of  my  protection,  and  to  stir  them 
up  against  the  Catholics  who  still  live  in  great  numbers  in  the 
towns  which  they  occupy,  and  from  which  they  would  already 
have  expelled  them  by  force  if  I  had  not  interfered."  * 

Again,  a  few  weeks  after  the  publication  of  the  edict; — "I 
have  well  considered  what  his  Holiness  has  said  to  you  t  with 
reference  to  the  edict  which  I  have  issued  in  order  to  restore 
peace  to  my  kingdom ;  and  I  trust  that  time  will  convince  him 
that  the  assurances  you  have  given  of  my  real  intentions  are 
more  to  be  relied  on  than  the  reports  which  he  has  heard  from 
others  to  my  disadvantage."  And  some  months  later  he  writes 
to  the  Pope  himself : — "  I  shall  take  care  so  to  manage  the 
edict  which  I  have  published  for  the  tranquillity  of  my  king- 
dom, that  its  most  important  and  most  solid  results  shall  be  in 
favour  of  the  Catholic  religion  ;  and  this  indeed  is  already  be- 
ginning to  appear."  \ 

These  anticipations  were  remarkably  fulfilled.  Within  a 
year  after  the  appearance  of  the  edict  we  find  Henry  congra- 
tulating himself  on  having  recovered  the  confidence  of  the 
Sovereign  Pontiff,  with  regard  to  his  designs  "  for  the  glory  of 

*  Leltres  Missives  de  Henri  IV.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  921.  f  Cardinal  de  Joyeuse. 

J  Lettres  Missives,  Nov.  1599. 


A.D.  1599.          REVIVAL  OF  THE  CATHOLIC  RELIGION.1  209 

God,  and  the  restoration  of  his  Church."  The  wisdom  of  his  tole- 
rant policy  had  quickly  become  manifest,  not  only  by  the  entire 
cessation  of  civil  strife,  but  by  an  extraordinary  revival  of  zeal 
and  vigour  which  sprung  up  internally  in  the  French  Church, 
and  by  a  no  less  wonderful  reaction  towards  Catholicism  pro- 
ceeding simultaneously  among  the  Huguenots  themselves.  No 
sooner  did  the  sectaries  find  themselves  fully  protected  by  the 
law,  and  admitted  to  the  free  enjoyment  of  all  the  rights  belong- 
ing to  French  citizens,  than  their  religious  bigotry  began  sensibly 
to  abate.  Their  prejudices  gradually  melted  away  before  the 
fervid  exhortations,  the  unwearied  energy,  the  acute  and  weighty 
reasonings,  of  the  Catholic  clergy  and  missionaries ;  and  the 
result  was  seen  in  a  long  series  of  memorable  conversions.  In 
short,  if  Henry  IV.  had  needed  any  justification  of  his  indul- 
gence to  the  Protestants  in  granting  them  the  Edict  of  Nantes, 
he  had  only  to  point  to  the  prosperous  aspect  of  the  Church, 
ani  the  general  strengthening  of  the  Catholic  interest  through- 
out France.  The  ambassador  d'Halincourt,  on  proceeding 
to  Home  in  1605,  was  instructed  to  call  the  special  atten- 
tion of  the  Pope  to  this  encouraging  fact.  "  The  Catholic 
religion,  fostered  as  it  is  by  the  authority  and  solicitude  of  his 
Majesty,  is  visibly  regaining  its  ancient  strength  and  splendour. 
It  is  notorious  to  all  men  that  it  has  made  greater  progress 
during  the  six  or  seven  years  since  the  re-establishment  of 
peace,  by  the  wise  measures  taken  by  his  Majesty,  than  it  ever 
did  during  the  wars  of  the  late  kings  Charles  and  Henry; 
France  having  discovered,  to  her  cost,  that  the  evils  arising 
from  diversity  of  religious  opinions,  when  they  have  taken  deep 
root  in  a  nation,  are  to  be  assuaged  rather  by  gentleness  and 
moderation  than  by  harshness  and  violence." 

The  Edict  of  Nantes,  then,  must  not  bs  regarded  merely  as 
an  act  of  arbitrary  indulgence  to  the  Calvinists ;  it  must  not 
be  separated  from  the  general  scheme  of  Henry's  far-sighted 
and  well-balanced  policy.  The  grant  of  religious  freedom  to  the 
Protestants  formed  part,  but  only  a  part,  of  that  which  was  the 
paramount  object  and  work  of  Henry's  reign — the  restoration 
of  peace,  security,  unity, — social,  political,  and  ecclesiastical, — 
to  France.  His  peculiar  antecedents  enabled  him  to  pursue  a 
path  which  to  his  predecessors  had  been  impracticable ;  to 
maintain  a  powerful  State  Establishment  without  violating  the 

VOL.  i.  p 


210  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  IV. 

rights  and  liberties  of  dissentient  sects ;  to  protect  the  Church 
without  irritating  or  oppressing  the  Nonconformists.  In  no 
other  way  could  he  have  stanched  the  bleeding  wounds  of  his 
country ;  nor  could  any  one  have  accomplished  it  but  himself. 
Neither  of  the  two  rival  camps  of  the  "  wars  of  religion,"  had 
its  councils  exclusively  prevailed,  could  have  saved  France 
from  ruin.  The  Leaguers  were  in  arms  against  their  lawful 
sovereign;  the  Huguenots,  apostates  from  the  ancient  faith, 
were  offensive  to  the  religious  instincts  of  the  great  mass  of 
the  nation.  But  Henry,  when  once  he  had  become  a  Catholic 
prince,  the  "eldest  Son  of  the  Church,"  combined  in  himself 
all  the  required  elements  of  mediation  and  reunion.  He  anni- 
hilated the  League  by  satisfying  the  very  principle  for  which 
the  League  had  been  all  along  professedly  contending ;  he 
silenced  the  Huguenots  by  redressing  their  grievances,  and 
raising  them  to  a  degree  of  political  importance  of  which  their 
most  sanguine  partisans  had  scarcely  dreamed. 

With  regard  to  his  external  and  international  relations,  Henry 
availed  himself  in  like  manner,  and  with  equal  success,  of  these 
happy  circumstances  of  his  position.  Only  a  few  weeks  after 
issuing  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  he  signed  the  scarcely  less  important 
Peace  of  Vervins  with  the  Spanish  branch  of  the  House  of  Austria. 
Spain  and  the  Empire  had  hitherto  been  regarded  as  the  main 
bulwarks  of  Catholicism  in  Europe ;  and  so  long  as  France  was 
distracted  and  enfeebled  by  the  wars  of  the  League,  their  pre- 
dominance was  indisputable.  But,  under  the  skilful  guidance 
of  Henry  IV.,  France  speedily  recovered  her  just  influence. 
Not  only  did  he  conclude  an  advantageous  peace  with  Spain,  but 
he  contrived,  with  admirable  tact,  to  attach  to  himself  and  to 
France  all  the  principal  States  which  were  adverse  to  the 
Spanish  and  Austrian  interest;  and  the  confederacy  thus 
formed  was  so  powerful  as  to  make  him  virtually  the  arbiter 
of  Europe. 

The  Holy  See  acknowledged  him  as  its  most  strenuous 
defender.  He  charmed  the  minor  powers  of  Italy  with  the 
dazzling  prospect  of  Italian  unity  and  independence.  He 
maintained  a  confidential  correspondence  with  Maurice  of 
Hesse  and  other  Lutheran  princes  of  Germany.  He  negociated 
on  terms  ot  friendship  with  Elizabeth  arid  James  I.  of  England. 
Above  all,  lie  entered  into  a  treaty  of  strict  alliance  with  the 


A.D.  1600.          REVIVAL  OF  THE  CATHOLIC  RELIGION.  211 

United  Provinces  of  Holland ;  he  upheld  their  cause  with  un- 
flagging zeal  and  ability  through  a  long  labyrinth  of  tedious 
negociations  ;  and  it  was  in  no  small  degree  owing  to  him  that 
they  triumphed  in  the  end,  by  the  formal  recognition  of  their 
independence  in  the  treaty  of  April,  1609. 

Thus  auspiciously  did  the  seventeenth  century  dawn  for  the 
interests  of  France.  After  the  destructive  tempests  of  the  civil 
wars,  the  nation  began  to  revive  and  to  breathe  freely  ;  and  men 
of  all  parties  joined  in  heartfelt  aspirations  for  the  blessings  of 
settled  peace,  social  order,  and  legitimate  government.  Even 
the  most  thoughtless  of  that  generation  had  learned  lessons 
amid  the  calamities  of  their  youth  which  brought  forth  whole- 
some fruit  in  their  maturer  years.  The  conciliatory  spirit  and 
patriotic  example  of  Henry  IV.  won  by  degrees  a  widespread 
sympathy  throughout  the  nation.  His  clemency  rebuked  the 
fierceness  of  religious  partisanship ;  his  long  experience,  his 
remarkable  success,  the  sincerity  of  his  character,  were  appre- 
ciated even  by  those  who  had  opposed  him  the  most  bitterly, 
and  influenced  public  opinion  in  a  thousand  ways. 

In  all  directions  Eeligion  was  now  invoked  as  the  true  source 
and  most  certain  pledge  of  tranquillity  and  happiness,  public  and 
private.  During  the  first  quarter  of  the  seventeenth  century 
France  was  thoroughly  penetrated  by  the  spirit  of  religious 
enterprise.  The  mere  catalogue  of  public  institutions  of  different 
kinds  which  originated  in  this  memorable  movement  is  long 
enough  to  fill  several  printed  pages;  men  of  all  ranks  and 
professions  vied  with  each  other  in  forming  associations  for 
various  purposes  of  beneficent  exertion,  spiritual  and  temporal. 
Colleges,  schools,  hospitals,  missions  at  home  and  abroad,  con- 
gregations for  the  systematic  training  of  the  clergy,  diocesan 
seminaries,  the  reformation  of  many  monastic  orders  and  con- 
ventual houses — societies  devoted  to  the  education  of  the  young, 
to  the  relief  of  the  poor,  to  the  support  and  consolation  of  the 
aged,  to  the  visitation  of  prisoners,  to  the  redemption  of  captives 
— such  are  some  of  the  characteristic  undertakings  of  the  times 
we  are  about  to  contemplate. 


p  2 


212 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  V. 


CHAPTER    V. 


THE  "  Wars  of  religion  "  had  left  the  Church  of  France  in  a  state 
of  miserable  depression  and  disorder.  From  an  official  report  made 
to  the  King  by  the  Assembly  of  the  clergy  in  1595,*  we  learn 
that  at  that  time  three-fourths  of  the  parochial  churches  were 
unprovided  with  legitimate  pastors.  Out  of  fourteen  archiepis- 
copal  sees,  six  or  seven  were  without  occupants ;  from  thirty  to 
forty  bishoprics  were  vacant  out  of  a  total  of  about  a  hundred  ; 
and  several  of  the  existing  prelates  had  been  elected  uncanoni- 
cally  and  by  discreditable  means.  With  regard  to  abbeys,  the 
destitution  was  still  worse ;  in  twenty-five  dioceses  there  were 
one  hundred  and  twenty  conventual  houses  without  qualified 
superiors.  "These  foundations,"  said  the  Bishop  of  Le  Mans, 
who  spoke  on  this  occasion  on  behalf  of  the  clergy,  "are 
managed  as  to  temporal  matters  (the  spiritual  administration 
is  scarcely  thought  of  at  all),  by  certain  laymen,  who  appropriate 
the  revenues  dedicated  by  the  founders  to  the  service  of  God, 
and  enjoy  them  under  the  name  of  some  hireling  substitute. 
The  spiritual  rule  and  government  of  these  houses,  which  is  a 
matter  of  Divine  right,  and  for  which  persons  of  the  highest 
merit  for  piety  and  learning  ought  to  be  chosen,  is  sold  for  hard 
cash,  bestowed  as  a  marriage  portion,  bartered  for  worldly  goods, 
and  this  openly,  with  the  knowledge  of  your  Majesty  and  your 
Council.  The  fold  being  thus  deprived  of  true  shepherds,  the 
sheep  are  scattered  abroad,  and  the  ravening  wolf,  finding  none 
to  oppose  him,  preys  upon  them  at  his  will.  The  sins  thereby 
committed  draw  down  upon  us  the  wrath  of  God,  and  make  the 
service  of  His  Church  offensive  to  Him."  The  bishop  proceeded 
to  entreat  the  king  to  restore  to  the  Church  the  right  of  free 
election ;  and  to  authorise  the  publication  of  the  bulls  of  Pius  V. 
and  Sixtus  V.  against  "  confidences."  f  "  Such  elections  would 


*  Proc&s  -  verbaux  des  Assembl.  du 
Clerg^  de  France,  torn.  i.  p.  576.  Palma- 
Cayet,  Chronol.  Noven.,  Liv.  vii. 


t  A  "  confidence  "  is  a  contract  by 
which  an  ecclesiastic  receives  a  benefice 
on  condition  of  paying  the  emoluments, 


A.D.  1595. 


CORRUPTIONS  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


213 


fill  our  ranks  with  learned  divines,  faithful  pastors,  and  able 
rulers,  who  would  raise  the  Church  in  this  realm  into  a  flourishing 
condition  ;  while  the  constitutions  we  refer  to,  if  published  and 
executed,  would  remove  the  curse  that  now  lies  upon  us  by 
reason  of  the  crying  sin  of  simony."  The  clergy  complain 
further,  that  the  civil  power  had  lately  made  bold  encroachments 
on  the  spiritual ;  the  Grand  Conseil  having  taken  upon  itself 
to  grant  to  its  own  nominees  ecclesiastical  preferment  of  all 
kinds,  even  the  highest;  and  to  such  a  scandalous  extent 
had  this  been  carried,  that  children,  mere  schoolboys,  were 
placed  in  the  position  of  spiritual  heads  and  governors  of 
religious  houses.  The  Council  had  also  presumed  to  grant 
dispensations  of  marriage,  licences  for  plurality  of  benefices, 
and  absolutions  for  canonical  irregularities — matters  belonging 
exclusively  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff.  In 
conclusion,  they  express  their  hope  that,  as  his  Majesty  naturally 
desired  that  those  things  which  are  Caesar's  should  be  rendered 
to  Caesar,  so  he  would  not  be  less  solicitous  to  render  to  God  the 
things  which  be  God's. 

The  king,  in  his  reply,  promised  to  do  his  utmost  to  remedy 
the  abuses  and  corruptions  specified;  and  in  particular,  he 
declared  that  vacancies  in  the  episcopate  should  henceforth 
be  filled  by  persons  competent  to  preach,  and  to  execute  all 
other  duties  of  their  office.  At  the  same  time  he  administered 
a  sharp  rebuke  to  the  clergy,  whose  personal  misconduct  was,  in 
his  Majesty's  judgment,  the  main  cause  of  existing  evils.  He 
accused  them  of  having  instigated  the  aggressive  interference  of 
foreign  powers  in  France ;  of  scandalous  maladministration 
of  their  dioceses ;  of  caring  little  for  the  honour  of  God  in 
comparison  with  their  own  interest,  convenience,  and  enjoyment ; 
of  squandering  upon  mere  worldly  objects  the  revenues  which 
should  be  consecrated  to  the  work  of  the  Church.  To  such 
causes,  he  said,  he  attributed  the  rise  and  growth  of  religious 
dissension  in  the  kingdom ;  and  if  the  clergy  desired  to  see  a 
return  to  unity  and  concord,  they  must  undertake  in  good 
earnest  their  own  part  in  the  work  of  general  reformation.  It 


or  a  part  of  them,  to  a  third  person ;  or 
covenants  to  resign  the  preferment  at  a 
specified  time.  The  person  holding  a 
benefice  on  such  terms  is  called  a  "  con- 


fidentiaire."  The  engagement  is  simon- 
iacal.  He'ricourt,  Lois  Eccles.  de  France, 
F.  cliap.  xx.  28,  29.  Mfmoires  du 
Clergt  de  France,  torn.  viii.  p.  8. 


214  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  V. 

was  the  first  and  indispensable  condition  of  improvement  that 
they  should  set  an  edifying  example  to  the  people  by  word  and 
deed.  This  was  the  true  method  to  appease  the  wrath  of  God, 
to  secure  success  in  public  affairs,  and  to  make  converts  to  the 
Catholic  religion.  If  he  could  once  see  the  ecclesiastical  body 
thoroughly  reformed,  he  would  engage  to  bring  back  the 
Huguenots  to  the  bosom  of  the  Church.* 

Very  similar  representations  were  made  by  the  clerical 
Assemblies  of  1598,  1600,  1602,  and  1605.  On  the  latter 
occasion,  in  addition  to  the  usual  denunciations  of  simony, 
uncanonical  elections,  and  mismanagement  of  Church  property, 
the  clergy  urgently  petitioned  for  the  publication  of  the  Council 
of  Trent.  They  reminded  the  king  that  the  same  desire  had 
been  repeatedly  expressed  before,  both  by  General  Assemblies 
and  by  provincial  Councils.  It  was  grievous  that  France,  which 
had  for  its  sovereign  the  "  eldest  son  of  the  Church,"  should 
have  the  appearance  of  being  schismatic,  and  disobedient  to 
injunctions  so  sacred,  to  decrees  enacted  so  unquestionably 
under  the  guidance  of  the  Divine  Spirit.  How  long  were 
human  reasonings  to  prevail  in  opposition  to  the  behests  of 
Heaven  ?  How  long  was  the  sacred  to  give  way  to  the  secular, 
the  will  of  God  to  the  cavillings  of  man  ?  If  there  was  anything 
in  the  Tridentine  statutes  that  seemed  inconsistent  with  the 
legislation  of  France,  it  was,  in  fact,  of  so  small  importance, 
that  in  a  single  conference  between  the  bishops,  the  Council  of 
State,  and  the  Parliament,  they  would  engage  that  perfect  satis- 
faction should  be  given  to  his  Majesty  on  that  head. 

In  answer  to  this  harangue,  the  King  fully  admitted  the 
magnitude  of  the  evils  under  which  the  Church  still  laboured ; 
and,  with  respect  to  the  Council  of  Trent,  assured  the  clergy 
that  he  was  as  anxious  as  they  themselves  could  be  to  see  it  duly 
promulgated.  "  But,  as  you  remind  me  very  truly,"  said  Henry, 
taking  a  somewhat  unfair  advantage  of  an  expression  which  had 
fallen  from  the  Archbishop  of  Vienne,  "  considerations  of  tem- 
poral policy  sometimes  come  into  collision  with  the  dictates  of 
heavenly  wisdom."  At  the  same  time  he  promised  that  no 
effort  should  be  spared  on  his  part  to  promote  the  efficiency 
of  the  Church  and  the  triumph  of  true  religion  ;  and  he  took 


*  Procfs-verbaux  des  Assemb.  du  Clergf,  torn.  i.  p.  584. 


A.D.  1600.    DILAPIDATION  OF  ECCLESIASTICAL  BUILDINGS.     215 

the  prelates  present  to  witness  that  he  had  never  bestowed 
preferment  on  any  but  well-qualified  persons.  This  course  had 
already  produced  a  considerable  change  for  the  better,  and  by 
adhering  to  it  a  still  further  improvement  might  be  expected  for 
the  future.  As  to  the  simoniacal  practices  complained  of,  it  was 
for  those  among  the  clergy  who  felt  themselves  justly  chargeable 
with  such  offences  to  make  voluntary  reparation  by  resigning 
forth  with  the  preferments  thus  unlawfully  acquired ; — an  example 
which  would  demonstrate  their  sincerity  as  Church  reformers, 
and  which  could  not  fail  to  have  a  powerful  effect  upon  the 
minds  of  the  laity.* 

The  dilapidated  and  ruinous  condition  of  ecclesiastical  build- 
ings was  another  pitiable  feature  of  the  Church  of  France  at 
this  epoch.  The  '  Gallia  Christiana '  enumerates  upwards  of 
150  cathedral  and  abbey  churches  which  had  been  demolished 
by  the  Huguenots.  This  list  does  not  include  the  parochial 
churches  ravaged  by  the  sectaries  in  places  captured  by  their 
troops,  such  as  Orleans,  Soissons,  Auxerre,  Montpellier,  Nismes, 
Montauban,  Castres,  and  others.  In  the  district  of  Beauce 
three  hundred  churches  were  destroyed:  five  hundred  shared 
the  same  fate  in  the  dioceses  of  Uzes,  Yiviers,  Nismes,  and 
Mende.  Fearful  profanations  and  devastations  were  committed 
in  the  cities  of  Perigueux,  Lodeve,  Foix,  La  Charite,  and 
especially  at  Orleans,  where  not  a  single  Catholic  church  was 
left  standing.  In  short,  wherever  the  Calvinists  had  the  upper 
hand,  the  sanctuaries  of  the  Church,  and  conventual  houses  of 
all  kinds,  were  sacrificed  without  mercy  to  their  furious  passions. 
No  sooner  was  peace  restored,  than  the  bishops  and  clergy, 
zealously  seconded  by  the  faithful  of  all  classes,  applied  them- 
selves to  the  vast  task  of  rebuilding  these  sacred  edifices 
throughout  the  land.  Henry  IV.  and  his  Queen  laid  the  first  stone 
of  the  new  cathedral  of  Sainte  Croix  at  Orleans  on  the  17th 
of  April,  1601 ;  and  promised  a  princely  contribution  towards 
the  completion  of  the  work  for  ten  years  following.  During  the 
first  decade  of  the  century  two  other  churches  were  built  at 
Orleans ;  six  at  Paris,  including  those  belonging  to  the  convents 
of  the  Kecollets,  the  Carmelites,  and  the  Feuillans ;  the  much- 


*  Mtfmoires  du  Clergtf,  torn.  vii.  p.  116.     Proc&s-verlaux  des  Assembl.,  torn.  i. 
p.  720. 


216  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  V. 

admired  Church  of  Notre-Dame  de  Clery,  in  the  Orleanois; 
and  several  founded  in  different  parts  of  the  country  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Jesuits  after  their  re-establishment  in  France.* 
These  were  placed  in  the  towns  where  the  Order  had  its 
principal  houses,  such  as  La  Fleche,  Moulins,  Eennes,  Poitiers, 
Amiens,  and  Caen.  That  at  La  Fleche  is  a  structure  of 
remarkable  beauty. 

The  conversion  of  the  sovereign  to  Catholicism  naturally 
formed  a  prelude  to  a  considerable  movement  in  the  same 
direction  among  the  Huguenots,  particularly  those  of  the 
higher  and  better  educated  classes.  During  the  reign  of  Henry 
IV.  this  was  the  principal  field  in  which  the  Gallican  clergy 
exhibited  their  zeal ;  and  their  success  was  such  as  to  produce 
a  marked  effect  upon  the  general  tone  and  spirit  of  society  with 
regard  to  religion.  In  connexion  with  this  important  feature 
of  the  time  it  will  be  suitable  to  place  before  the  reader  some 
account  of  the  character  and  labours  of  Cardinal  Du  Perron. 

Jacques  Davy  du  Perron  belonged  to  a  family  of  good 
repute  in  Lower  Normandy.  His  parents,  having  embraced 
the  "  new  doctrine,"  emigrated  into  Switzerland  to  avoid 
molestation  on  account  of  their  belief;  and  it  was  in  the 
Canton  of  Berne  that  the  future  prelate  and  cardinal  first  saw 
the  light,  on  the  25th  of  November,  1556.  The  earliest  reli- 
gious notions  instilled  into  him  were,  of  course,  those  of  the 
Reformers  ;-his  father,  a  man  of  superior  acquirements,  directed 
his  education  up  to  the  age  of  ten  years.  The  lad  discovered 
extraordinary  capacity,  and  an  insatiable  love  of  learning.  He 
devoted  himself  to  study,  and  in  the  course  of  a  few  years  made 
surprising  progress  in  various  branches  of  knowledge — in  the 
classical  languages,  in  mathematics,  logic,  philosophy,  and 
natural  sciences.  The  family  returned  to  France  on  the  paci- 
fication with  the  Huguenots  in  1576  ;  and,  not  long  afterwards, 
the  mind  of  young  Du  Perron  became  unsettled  with  respect 
to  certain  articles  of  the  Calvinist  creed.  It  is  said  that  his 
doubts  were  first  suggested  by  reading  a  treatise  "  On  the 
Church,"  written  by  the  well-known  Duplessis - Mornay  in 
defence  of  Protestantism.  With  characteristic  zeal  he  at  once 


*  Legrain,  Decade  de  H,  le  Grand,  Liv.  viii.    Quoted  by  Poirson,  Hist,  du 
Begne  de  Henri  IV.,  torn.  iv.  p.  514. 


A.D.  1600.  DU  PERRON.  '    217 

entered  on  an  investigation  of  the  whole  controversy  between 
Eome  and  Geneva.  The  works  of  the  Fathers  and  Schoolmen 
—  particularly  those  of  Augustine  and  Thomas  Aquinas  — 
gradually  opened  his  eyes  to  the  hollowness  of  the  system  in 
which  he  had  been  nurtured ;  and  his  researches  left  him 
profoundly  convinced  of  the  truth  and  authority  of  the  Catholic 
religion.  Du  Perron  lost  no  time  in  abjuring  the  heresy  of 
Calvin ;  and,  having  resolved  to  embrace  the  ecclesiastical 
profession,  he  received  holy  orders  in  1577.  Immediately 
afterwards  he  was  appointed  reader  to  Henry  III. ;  and, 
after  the  assassination  of  that  monarch,  he  obtained  a  place 
in  the  household  of  the  Cardinal  of  Bourbon,  whom  the 
League  dignified  with  the  empty  title  of  King.  But  in 
1591  he  attached  himself  to  the  cause  of  Henry  IV.;  who 
quickly  recognized  his  talents,  and  raised  him  in  due  time 
to  the  highest  stations  in  the  Church.  Du  Perron  now  devoted 
his  vast  stores  of  learning,  and  his  remarkable  argumentative 
powers,  to  the  work  of  converting  the  Huguenots  to  the  true 
faith.  His  labours  were  richly  rewarded,  and  he  became,  per- 
haps, the  most  successful  agent  in  the  great  revival  of  religion 
which  distinguished  this  epoch  in  France.* 

In  December,  1593,  Du  Perron  sustained  a  controversial 
discussion  with  some  Protestant  ministers  at  Mantes,  by  the 
special  permission  of  the  king,  and  under  conditions  prescribed 
by  him.  With  one  of  them  named  Kotan,  a  man  highly 
esteemed  by  his  co-religionists,  he  debated  the  question, 
"  whether  Holy  Scripture  is  sufficient  to  salvation ; "  and  we 
learn  from  L'Estoile  that,  after  arguing  for  several  hours,  the 
Huguenot  divine  had  the  manliness  and  candour  to  confess 
himself  vanquished.  The  next  day  Francois  Becault,  another 
eminent  minister,  experienced  a  like  defeat. 

Shortly  after  Henry's  reconciliation  to  the  Church,  Du  Perron, 
to  whose  influence  that  step  was  in  great  measure  due,  was 
nominated  to  the  see  of  Evreux,  in  succession  to  Claude 
de  Saintes.  The  king  now  despatched  him  as  special  envoy 
to  Rome,  where  we  have  already  seen  him  taking  a  principal 
part  in  the  negociations  which  ended  in  his  master's  recognition 
by  the  Papal  Court.  During  his  stay  at  Rome  he  was  con- 


*  Bonav.  Racine,  Hist.  Eccles.,  torn.  x.  p.  314  et  seqq. 


218 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  V. 


secrated  Bishop  of  Evreux  by  Cardinal  de  Joyeuse,  Archbishop 
of  Kouen,  on  the  27th  December,  1595.  Keturning  to  France, 
he  renewed  his  public  disputations  with  the  Calvinists — 
an  arena  in  which  he  never  failed  to  figure  to  advantage. 
A  long  list  of  conversions  attested  his  prowess.  Among  his 
conquests  were  Pierre  Palma-Cayet,  author  of  the  '  Chronologie 
Novenaire ; '  Nicolas  Harlai  de  Sancy,  a  confidential  friend  of 
Henry  IV. ;  and  Spondanus,  or  De  Sponde,  afterwards  Bishop 
of  Pamiers,  the  continuator  of  the  Annals  of  Baronius.  But  it 
was  in  his  famous  conference  with  Duplessis-Mornay,  in  the 
year  1600,  that  the  genius  of  Du  Perron  achieved  its  most 
brilliant  triumph.  Some  detailed  account  of  this  occurrence, 
which  at  the  time  created  an  immense  sensation,  will  doubtless 
be  acceptable  to  the  reader. 

Duplessis-Mornay,  at  this  time  Governor  of  Saumur,  was  no 
less  eminent  for  his  zeal  in  defence  of  the  doctrines  of  the 
.Reformation  than  for  his  ability  as  a  politician  and  diplo- 
matist. His  authority  with  his  co-religionists  was  such  that  he 
was  commonly  styled  "  the  Huguenot  Pope."  He  had  lately 
published  a  book  entitled  *  L'Institution  de  1'Eucharistie,'  *  in 
which  he  undertook  to  prove  that  the  Calvinist  view  of  that 
Sacrament  is  supported  by  the  unanimous  testimony  of  all 
Christian  ages.  It  possessed  considerable  merit,  both  in  point 
of  style  and  learning ;  but  the  writer  had  unfortunately  taken 
upon  trust  the  quotations  from  the  Fathers  furnished  to  him  by 
the  Huguenot  ministers,  without  troubling  himself  to  verify 
them  by  personal  research.  These  quotations  were  to  a  great 
extent  garbled,  mutilated,  and  perverted  from  their  real 
meaning ;  and  the  result  upon  Morn  ay's  line  of  argument  may 
be  easily  imagined.  The  truth  was  speedily  detected  by  the 
orthodox  divines,  among  others  by  the  Bishop  of  Evreux.  The 
book  had  been  sent  to  him  by  Sully,  whose  party  had  taught 
him  to  regard  it  as  a  masterpiece  ;  and  great  must  have  been 
his  surprise  on  learning  from  the  prelate  that  it  was  full  of 
errors  from  beginning  to  end.  "  Not,"  said  Du  Perron,  "  that 
I  wish  to  charge  M.  Duplessis  with  intentional  bad  faith ;  but  I 
regret  that  he  has  been  so  unfortunate  as  to  rely  upon  the 


*  "De  I'institution,  usage,  et  doc- 
trine de  1'Eucharistie  en  1'Eglise  An- 
cienne;  ensemble  quand,  comment,  et 


par  qnels  degrez  la  Messe  s'est  in- 
troduite  en  sa  place." — Salmur.  MDCIV. 
4to. 


A.D.  1600.         DU  PERRON  AND  DUPLESSIS-MORNAY. 


219 


romances  of  mere  compilers,  who  have  treated  him  extremely 
ill."  *  Moruay,  on  being  informed  of  the  bishop's  accusation — 
that  the  work  contained  at  least  five  hundred  falsified  quota- 
tions— challenged  him  to  prove  this  publicly ;  and  Du  Perron 
having  signified  his  willingness,  a  request  was  made  to  the 
king  that  the  question  thus  raised  might  be  argued  before 
appointed  witnesses  in  his  Majesty's  presence.  Henry  assented, 
not  without  some  malicious  satisfaction  at  seeing  his  ancient 
comrade  enter  the  lists  with  so  accomplished  an  antagonist ; 
and  the  passage  of  arms  was  fixe  1  to  take  place  at  the  Palace 
of  Fontainebleau  in  the  month  of  May,  1600.  Commissioners 
were  appointed  to  superintend  the  proceedings ;  the  president 
de  Thou,  Francois  Pithou  the  advocate,  and  Martin  the  king's 
reader,  acting  for  the  Catholics,  and  Isaac  Casaubon  and 
Canaye  de  Fresne,  president  of  one  of  the  "  chambres  mi- 
parties,"  for  the  Protestants.  As  the  important  clay  approached, 
Mornay  betrayed  symptoms  of  hesitation  and  shrinking  from 
the  contest.  Difficulties  were  started  as  to  the  form,  subject- 
matter,  and  extent  of  the  controversy ;  but  these  were  at 
length  overruled,  and  the  Conference  was  opened  on  the  4th  of 
May  in  the  council  chamber  of  the  palace,  before  the  king,  the 
Chancellor  Bellievre,  the  ministers  of  state,  and  a  large  audi- 
ence of  distinguished  personages.f  Sixty  passages  had  been 
selected  for  examination,  but,  at  the  request  of  Mornay,  these 
were  reduced  at  the  last  moment  to  nineteen,  and  only  nine 
were  actually  discussed.  The  first  extract  was  from  Joannes 
Scotus,  on  the  Real  Presence.  Scotus,  after  the  usual  fashion 
of  the  Schoolmen,  first  proposes  the  point  to  be  argued  in  the 
form  of  a  question,  then  subjoins  a  negative — "  videtur  quod 
non  " — on  the  part  of  a  supposed  opponent,  and  lastly  proceeds 
to  refute  this  fallacy  and  establish  the  truth.  Mornay,  from 
want  of  familiarity  with  this  quaint  mode  of  reasoning,  mistook 
the  negative  position  for  the  conclusion  of  Scotus  himself;  and 
thus  attributed  to  him  the  very  sentiment  which  it  was  his 
object  to  confute.  It  appeared  that  he  had  repeated  this 
blunder  with  regard  to  the  second  passage,  which  was  taken 
from  Durandus.  The  third  and  fourth  quotations  were  from 


*  Sully,  Economies  Royales,  Liv.  xi. 
(torn.  iii.  p.  37,  Ed.  Paris,  1822). 
t  See  L'Estoile,  Registre-Journal  de 


Henri    TV.,   an   1600.     Palina-Cayet, 
Chronologic  Septenaire. 


220 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  V. 


St.  Ckrysostom,  on  the  invocation  of  saints ;  these  were  proved 
to  have  been  mutilated  by  Mornay  or  his  friends,  by  the 
omission  of  some  essential  words.  The  fifth,  from  St.  Jerome, 
on  the  same  subject,  was  found  to  be  curtailed  in  like  manner. 
The  sixth,  on  the  use  of  the  sign  of  the  cross,  attributed  by 
Mornay  to  St.  Cyril,  was  not  to  be  discovered  in  any  part  of 
that  father's  writings.  The  seventh  was  from  a  law  of  the 
Emperor  Theodosius,  which  Mornay  had  copied  correctly  from 
a  treatise  by  Crinitus,  but  it  seems  that  the  latter  had  misquoted 
it.  The  eighth,  from  St.  Bernard,  consisted  of  two  passages 
which  had  been  jumbled  together  in  such  a  way  as  materially 
to  alter  the  meaning.  And  with  regard  to  the  ninth,  which 
was  cited  by  Mornay  from  Theodoret  as  relating  to  image 
worship,  it  appeared  that  the  historian  was  not  speaking  at  all 
of  the  worship  of  Christians,  but  of  the  idolatry  of  Pagans. 

At  seven  in  the  evening  the  king  adjourned  the  Conference 
to  the  next  day.  But  during  the  night  Mornay  was  suddenly 
taken  ill ;  De  Riviere,  the  King's  physician,  found  him  suffering 
severely  with  vomiting,  shivering,  and  pains  in  the  limbs  ;  and 
in  the  morning  he  declared  himself  incapable  of  resuming  the 
disputation.  The  Commissioners  were  accordingly  dismissed. 
On  the  8th  of  May  Mornay  quitted  Fontainebleau  and  retired 
to  Saumur,  without  taking  leave  of  the  king ;  and  this  pre- 
cipitate abandonment  of  the  field  was  naturally  interpreted  as 
a  confession  of  defeat.  After  a  time,  the  fallen  hero  thought  it 
necessary  to  make  some  movement  for  the  purpose  of  covering 
his  disgrace.  With  this  view  he  published  a  statement  under 
the  title  of '  Discours  Veritable/  in  which,  after  making  bitter 
complaints  against  the  king,  the  Chancellor,  the  Commis- 
sioners, and  especially  against  Du  Perron,  he  proceeded  to  give 
his  own  version  of  the  conference  at  Fontainebleau; — a  version, 
it  need  hardly  be  said,  in  the  highest  degree  favourable  to 
himself.  By  way  of  reply,  Du  Perron  contented  himself  with 
making  public  the  official  acts  of  the  Conference,  attested  by 
the  sign-manual  of  the  king,  and  accompanied  by  a  letter 
from  the  Chancellor.  To  these  documents  he  added  a  brief 
and  pungent '  Refutation  du  faux  Discours,'  from  his  own  pen.* 


*  "  Actes  de  la  Conference  entre  le 
Sieur  evesque  d'Evreux  et  le  Sieur 
Duplessis  en  presence  du  Roy  a  Fon- 


tainebleau le  4.™  May  1600,  publicz 
par  permission  et  authorite'  de  sa  Ma- 
jeste.  Par  Messire  Jacques  Davy 


A.D.  1600. 


DU  PERRON  AND  MORNAY. 


221 


In  the  dedication  of  this  volume  to  the  king,  Du  Perron 
indulges  in  the  following  somewhat  caustic  remarks : — "  If 
M.  du  Plessis  does  not  feel  satisfied  with  what  has  passed,  he 
has  still  in  his  hands  the  fifty-two  remaining  articles  of  the 
first  day's  discussion,  which  he  carried  away  without  taking 
leave  of  any  one,  and  which  since  then  he  must  have  had 
abundant  time  to  study.  I  am  quite  ready  to  give  him  the 
same  opportunity  of  exercising  his  talents  upon  these,  and  after- 
wards upon  the  rest  of  the  five  hundred  which  I  spoke  of ;  and 
this  I  shall  do  all  the  more  willingly,  inasmuch  as  the  authors 
are  of  more  weight,  the  topics  of  more  importance,  and  the  mis- 
statements  more  outrageous." 

Sully  relates  that,  during  the  progress  of  the  debate  at 
Fontainebleau,  the  king  turned  to  him,  and  said,  "  Well,  what 
do  you  think  now  of  your  Pope  ?  "  "  It  seems  to  me,  Sire," 
replied  the  Duke,  "that  he  is  more  of  a  Pope  than  your  Majesty 
supposes ;  for  at  this  moment  he  is  giving  the  red  hat  to  the 
Bishop  of  Evreux."  * 

The  fame  of  Du  Perron  received,  indeed,  no  small  additional 
lustre  from  the  result  of  the  Conference.  The  Pope  sent  him 
an  autograph  letter  of  congratulation  in  the  most  flattering 
terms.  The  King,  writing  to  the  Duke  of  Epernon,  announced 
that  "  the  diocese  of  Evreux  had  gained  a  signal  victory 
over  that  of  Saumur ;  that  it  was  one  of  the  greatest  strokes  of 
success  that  had  been  made  by  the  Church  for  a  long  while ; 
and  that  proceedings  of  this  kind  would  effect  more  towards 
bringing  back  the  Protestants  to  the  Church  than  fifty  years  of 
war  and  violence."  In  1604,  Du  Perron  was  promoted  to  the 
archbishopric  of  Sens,  and  appointed  Grand  Almoner  of  France ; 
and  in  the  same  year  he  was  elevated  by  Clement  VIII.  to  the 
dignity  of  cardinal. 

All  circumstances  considered,  it  is  not  surprising  to  find  that 
the  Fontainebleau  Conference  was  followed  by  several  notable 
conversions  to  Catholicism.  Ste.  Marie  du  Mont,  one  of  the 
gentlemen  of  the  king's  chamber,  was  the  first  to  give  this 
practical  testimony  to  Du  Perron's  superiority.  It  was  he  who 
had  been  the  original  promoter  of  the  controversy,  by  directing 


evesque  d'Evreux,  Conseiller  du  Eoy 
en  son  Conseil  d'estat,  et  son  premier 
aumosnier.  Evreux,  1601." 


*  Economies  Royales,  Liv.  xi.  (torn, 
iii.  p.  39). 


222  THE  GALLIC  AN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  V. 

the  bishop's  attention  to  the  rash  challenge  of  Duplessis-Mornay, 
and  entreating  him  to  answer  it.  Already  half-resolved  to 
abandon  Calvinism,  Ste.  Marie  took  leave  of  his  remaining 
scruples  in  the  course  of  the  discussion ;  and  on  its  conclusion 
forthwith  re-entered  the  communion  of  the  Church.  Canaye  de 
Fresne,  after  acting  as  one  of  the  Protestant  Moderators  at  the 
Conference,  scandalized  his  party  by  taking  a  similar  step 
shortly  afterwards.  Isaac  Casaubon,  the  other  commissioner  on 
the  Huguenot  side,  is  said  to  have  been  profoundly  affected  by 
Du  Perron's  reasonings  ;  but,  being  of  a  timid,  hesitating  dispo- 
sition, he  could  not  summon  sufficient  courage  to  act  on  his 
conviction.*  Casaubon  was  a  man  of  extensive  learning,  and 
one  of  the  best  classical  scholars  of  the  day.  He  had  filled  the 
post  of  Professor  of  Greek  in  the  University  of  Montpellier. 
Henry  IV.,  who  valued  him  highly,  summoned  him  to  Paris, 
and  made  him  his  librarian.  Casaubon  had,  for  some  time, 
been  much  dissatisfied  with  many  of  the  tenets  of  Calvin,  and 
with  the  general  course  of  the  Keformation.  "  I  cannot  conceal 
my  disquietude,"  he  writes  to  one  of  his  friends,  "  at  the  wide 
divergence  of  our  belief  from  that  of  the  ancient  Church.  ~  For, 
not  to  enter  upon  other  subjects,  Luther  departed  from  the 
primitive  doctrine  as  to  the  Sacraments ;  Zwingle  differs  from 
Luther ;  Calvin  disagrees  with  both  ;  and  more  recent  teachers 
have  abandoned  Calvin.  For  it  appears  to  me  most  certain 
that  the  doctrine  of  Calvin  on  the  Eucharist  is  greatly  at 
variance  with  that  laid  down  in  Du  Moulin's  treatise  on  that 
Sacrament,  which  is  now  generally  taught  in  our  churches. 
Hence  the  opponents  of  Du  Moulin  charge  him  with  being  no 
less  adverse  to  the  sentiments  of  Calvin  than  to  those  of  every 
ancient  doctor  of  the  Church.  If  we  continue  to  go  on  at  this 
rate,  where  is  it  all  to  end  ?  "  f 

But,  although  he  had  little  or  no  faith  in  the  principles  of 
the  Eeformation,  Casaubon  could  not  make  up  his  mind  to  an 
unqualified  acceptance  of  the  system  of  the  Church  of  Eome. 
By  way  of  a  mezzo-termine,  he  resolved,  after  prolonged  inde- 

*  Du  Perron  eays  that  he  was  on  the  1'Eucharistie." — Perroniana,     p.     46. 

point  of  declaring  his  adhesion  to  the  Per  fratres  Puteanos  (Dupuy),  1669. 

Catholic  Church.     "  J'ay  vu  Monsieur  i       f  Casaubon  to  Wytenbogart  (Joauni 

Casaubon  prest  a  prendre  jour  pour  Utenbogardo),    Epist.    DCLXX.      Edit, 

faire  abjuration.    II  avait  mesme  pro-  Koterodam.  1709. 
mis  de  traduire  en  Latin  mon  livre  de 


A.D.  1600.  ISAAC  CASAUBON.  223 

cision,  to  adopt  the  communion  of  the  Church  of  England ; 
and  quitting  France,  under  circumstances  apparently  not  very 
creditable  to  his  sincerity  and  honour,  he  proceeded  to  London. 
He  now  ingratiated  himself  with  King  James  I.,  who  gave  him 
a  prebendal  stall  at  Canterbury,  and  afterwards  another  at 
Westminster.  One  of  his  sons,  however,  was  honest  enough  to 
abjure  the  Reformed  religion,  and  took  the  vows  as  a  Capuchin 
monk.  His  father's  words,  on  parting  with  him,  were  charac- 
teristic. "  I  give  you  my  blessing  with  all  my  heart.  I  con- 
demn you  not ;  I  beg  you  not  to  condemn  me.  Jesus  Christ 
will  judge  us  both."  Casaubon  died  in  England  in  1614,  and 
was  buried  in  the  Abbey  Church  of  Westminster.* 

Du  Perron,  as  Cardinal,  Grand  Almoner,  and  Archbishop  of 
Sens  (which  province  at  that  time  included  the  capital  and  the 
diocese  of  Paris),  took  a  conspicuous  part  in  the  administration 
of  affairs  both  in  Church  and  State.  He  soon  proved  himself  a 
strenuous  supporter  of  Ultramontane  doctrine,  and  a  powerful 
champion  of  Papal  interests.  In  the  many  anxious  questions 
which  were  debated  in  his  time  in  the  Roman  consistory,  the 
opinion  of  Du  Perron  always  carried  extraordinary  weight, 
and  rarely  failed  to  command  the  assent  of  the  majority.  Such, 
indeed,  was  the  fascination  of  his  eloquence,  that  Pope  Paul  V. 
was  accustomed  to  say  to  the  cardinals  around  him,  "  Let  us  all 
pray  God  to  inspire  Cardinal  Du  Perron ;  for  he  will  make  us 
believe  whatever  he  pleases." 

Amid  the  seductions  of  general  admiration  and  brilliant 
success,  this  great  prelate  seems  to  have  preserved  much  sim- 
plicity and  modesty  of  character.  He  was  ever  ready  to  acknow- 
ledge to  their  full  extent  the  gifts  and  powers  of  others,  and  to 
depreciate  his  own  in  comparison.  "  To  convince  is  but  a  small 
thing,"  he  was  wont  to  say  ;  "  to  convert  is  the  grand  difficulty. 


*  The  following  is  the  inscription  on   !   Munifice    fovit.    Posteritasque  ob    doctriiiam 
the  mural  tablet  erected  to  him  in  the  '      a**™™  niirabitur. 


South  transept  of  the  abbey : — 

ISAAC'  CASAUBON'. 
0  doctiomm  quicquid  est  assurgite 
Hulc  tarn  colendo  nooiini. 
Quern  Gullia  R-ip.  literariae  bono  peperit. 
Henricus  IV.  Francorum  Rex  invictissimus 
Lutetiara  llteris  suis  evocatum  bibliotuecas  suae 

prselecit. 

Charumque  deinceps  dum  vlxit  habult. 
Koqiie  terns  erepto  Jacobus  Mag  Brit,  monarcba 
llegum  doctlssimus  doctis  indulgentiss.  in  An- 

gliamaccivit. 


H.  s.  ic.  invidia  major. 
Obiit  astern,  in  Xto.  vitam  anhelans 

Kal.  1VL.   MDCXIV.   Kl.  LV. 

Viro  opt.  immortalitate  digniss. 
Th.  Mortonus  Ep.  Dunelm. 
Jucundissinue,  quoad  frui  licuit,  consuetudinis 


memor. 


pr.  s.  P.  cv. 
MDCXXXIV. 

sse  vult  Casaubonum 
xa  sed  chartas  legal 


Qui  nos 
Nen  sa: 

Superfuturas  marmori 
Et  profuturas  posteris. 


224  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  V. 

I  may  be  able  to  silence  heretics,  but  the  man  to  convert  them 
is  Francois  de  Sales."  *  The  celebrated  person  here  named  (to 
whose  history  the  reader's  attention  will  be  called  hereafter) 
was  at  this  time  beginning  to  attract  notice  and  interest  in 
France.  Franfois  de  Sales,  then  coadjutor  to  the  Bishop  of 
Geneva,  preached  the  course  of  Lent  sermons  in  the  chapel 
of  the  Louvre  in  the  year  1602,  and  produced  a  marvellous 
impression,  not  only  on  Henry  IV.  and  his  family,  but  on  the 
Huguenot  nobility,  who  flocked  in  crowds  to  hear  him  ;  several 
of  them  are  said  to  have  been  converted  in  consequence. 

The  Gallican  Church  possessed  at  this  period,  besides  Du 
Perron,  six  other  prelates  who  had  attained  the  rank  of  cardinal. 
These  were — (1.)  Francois  de  Joyeuse,  Archbishop  of  Narbonne, 
afterwards  of  Toulouse,  and  finally  of  Rouen.  De  Joyeuse  was 
raised  to  the  purple  by  Gregory  XIII.  in  1583.  The  greater 
part  of  his  life  was  passed  in  diplomatic  employments.  For 
several  years  he  was  agent  for  the  Duke  of  Mayenne  and  the 
League  at  the  Court  of  Rome;  but  on  the  conversion  of 
Henry  IV.  he  at  once  declared  in  his  favour,  and  exerted  all 
his  influence  to  procure  his  absolution  at  the  hands  of  Cle- 
ment VIII.  Perhaps  the  most  important  transaction  in  which 
this  cardinal  figured  was  the  reconciliation  effected  by  his  means 
between  the  Venetian  States  and  the  Church,  after  the  rash 
interdict  inflicted  on  the  Republic  by  Paul  V.  De  Joyeuse 
enjoyed  a  high  place  in  the  confidence  of  Henry  IV.,  and  was 
named  by  him  a  member  of  the  Council  of  Regency  in  1610,  in 
the  prospect  of  his  setting  out  to  join  the  army  a  few  days 
before  his  assassination.  The  Cardinal  died  in  1615. 

(2.)  Arnaud  d'Ossat  was  a  remarkable  instance  of  elevation, 
by  the  force  of  personal  merit,  from  obscurity  and  poverty  to 
the  highest  posts  ci  dignity  and  honour.  His  father  was  a 
blacksmith  in  a  small  hamlet  of  Languedoc.  Both  his  parents 
died  while  he  was  a  mere  child,  and  he  was  left  friendless  and 
destitute  in  the  world.  A  charitable  gentleman  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood took  pity  on  him,  and  had  him  educated  as  a  com- 
panion to  his  nephew.  His  powers  of  mind  rapidly  developed, 
and  he  prosecuted  his  studies  with  unremitting  energy  and 


*  Vie  de  S.  Franfois  de  Sales,  par  le  Cure  de  S.  Sulpice  (M.  Hamon),  torn.  i. 
Liv.  iii.  p.  396. 


A.D.  1600.  FRENCH  CARDINALS. 

surprising  success.  For  some  time  he  practised  as  a  barrister, 
but  abandoned  that  profession  on  being  appointed  secretary 
to  the  French  ambassador  at  Rome,  and  from  that  time  forth 
he  was  identified  with  the  diplomatic  intercourse  between  France 
and  the  Holy  See.  Upon  the  death  of  the  ambassador  De  Foix, 
D'Ossat  succeeded  to  the  post  of  charge  d'affaires  at  Eome, 
and  in  that  capacity  conducted  the  intricate  ecclesiastical  ne- 
gociations  of  the  earlier  part  of  the  reign  of  Henry  IV.  His 
services  in  the  affair  of  the  King's  reconciliation  with  the  Pope 
were  rewarded  with  the  bishopric  of  Eennes,  from  which  he 
was  afterwards  translated  to  Bayeux.  D'Ossat  was  created  a 
Cardinal  in  1598,  and  continued  to  reside  chiefly  at  Eome  as 
the  official  representative  of  his  sovereign  until  his  death,  which 
happened  in  1604. 

(3.)  Francois  d'Escoubleau  de  Sourdis  was  the  eldest  son  of  a 
noble  family ;  and,  had  he  pursued  the  walk  of  life  for  which  he 
was  originally  destined,  would  doubtless  have  risen  to  high  rank 
at  court  and  in  the  army.  But  his  impressions  of  religion  were 
so  deep  and  strong  that  he  found  it  no  difficult  task  to  forego 
his  brilliant  prospects  in  the  world.  Having  taken  orders,  he 
devoted  himself  energetically  to  the  work  of  the  ministry,  and 
acquired  a  distinguished  reputation  in  the  south  of  France. 
Clement  VIIL,  at  the  personal  solicitation  of  Henry  IV.,  gave 
him  a  cardinal's  hat  in  1598,  and  he  was  named  to  the  arch- 
bishopric of  Bordeaux  in  the  same  year.  Cardinal  de  Sourdis 
administered  his  diocese  with  exemplary  zeal,  vigour,  and 
piety ;  insomuch  that  he  was  commonly  called  the  "  French 
Borromeo."  He  laboured  earnestly,  and  with  considerable 
success,  to  restore  discipline,  and  raise  the  standard  of  pro- 
fessional exertion,  among  his  clergy ;  and  a  provincial  Council 
which  he  held  at  Bordeaux  in  1624  is  an  event  of  no  small 
importance  in  the  ecclesiastical  annals  of  the  time.  This 
admirable  prelate  died  in  1628,  and  was  succeeded  as  arch- 
bishop by  his  brother,  Henri  de  Sourdis ; — a  man  of  ability, 
but  of  a  disposition  more  ambitious  and  warlike  than  became 
his  profession.  He  acted  as  second  in  command  to  Cardinal 
Eichelieu  at  the  famous  siege  of  La  Eochelle. 

(4.)  Pierre  de  Gondi,  a  member  of  the  great  Florentine 
family  of  that  name,  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Langres  in 
1566,  and  translated  to  Paris  two  years  afterwards.  He  was 

VOL.    I.  Q 


226  THE  GALLTCAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  V. 

a  prelate  of  high  merit,  and  conducted  himself  with  singular 
moderation  and  discretion  during  the  troubles  of  the  League. 
Pope  Sixtus  V.  made  him  a  cardinal  in  1587.  Some  years 
afterwards  he  resigned  the  bishopric  of  Paris  in  favour  of  his 
nephew,  Henri  de  Gondi.  He  died  in  1616.  The  see  of  Paris, 
it  should  be  noticed,  was  occupied  successively  by  four  prelates 
of  the  Gondi  family.  The  first  was  Pierre  de  Gondi,  above 
mentioned;  the  second,  his  nephew  Henri,  son  of  the  first 
Due  de  Ketz,  and  a  favourite  counsellor  of  Louis  XIII.  The 
third,  Jean  Franpois  de  Gondi,  brother  of  the  preceding,  was 
the  first  .Archbishop  of  Paris ;  the  see  having  been  detached 
from  the  province  of  Sens,  and  raised  to  metropolitical  rank, 
by  Gregory  XV.  in  1622.  The  fourth,  Jean  Franpois  Paul,  son 
of  Philippe  Comte  de  Joigny,  was  the  celebrated  Cardinal  de 
Eetz,  the  demagogue  of  the  Fronde ;  a  man  whose  name  is 
associated  in  history  with  pursuits  and  qualities  the  most 
diametrically  opposite  to  those  of  the  ecclesiastical  profession. 
He  became  Archbishop  of  Paris  on  the  death  of  his  uncle  in  1654. 

(5.)  Anne  Escars  de  Givri,  Bishop  of  Lisieux,  and  afterwards 
of  Metz,  had  been  a  zealous  member  of  the  Catholic  League ; 
and  as  such,  his  elevation  to  the  Cardinalate  in  1596  was  by 
no  means  acceptable  to  Henry  IV.  Appreciating,  however,  the 
prelate's  many  excellent  qualities,  Henry  treated  him  with 
favour  and  confidence,  and  advanced  him  to  the  see  of  Metz. 
Cardinal  de  Givri  died  in  1612. 

(6.)  Charles,  Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  was  the  son  of  Charles, 
Duke  of  Lorraine,  by  the  Princess  Claude,  daughter  of  King 
Henry  II.  He  was  Bishop  of  Metz,  and  subsequently  of 
Strasburg,  and  was  created  cardinal  by  Sixtus  V.  in  1589.  He 
died  at  an  early  age  in  1607. 


The  general  spirit  of  Henry's  policy  in  the  earlier  part  of  his 
reign  was,  naturally  and  pre-eminently,  that  of  conciliation. 
The  Edict  of  Nantes  was  one  movement  of  vast  importance  in 
this  direction.  It  was  closely  followed  by  another  of  scarcely  less 
moment,  but  prompted  by  very  different  considerations,  and 
tending  towards  almost  opposite  results,  namely,  the  recall  of 
the  banished  Jesuits  to  France. 

On  the  29th  of  December,  1594,  at  a  moment  when  the 


A.D.  1603.         THE  JESUITS  RECALLED  TO  FBANCE.  227 

popular  mind  was  violently  exasperated  by  the  attempt  of  Jean 
Chatel  to  assassinate  the  king  on  his  return  from  Amiens,  the 
Parliament  of  Paris  had  published  an  arret  by  which  all  mem- 
bers of  the  "  so-called  Society  of  Jesus  "  were  expelled  from  the 
kingdom,  "  as  corrupters  of  youth,  disturbers  of  the  public  peace, 
and  enemies  to  the  King  and  the  State."  The  property  of  the 
Order  was  confiscated ;  Jean  Chatel's  house  was  levelled  with 
the  ground ;  and  an  obelisk  was  raised  on  the  spot,  with  an 
inscription  which  recorded  that  his  crime  was  dictated  by  "  that 
pestilent  sect  of  heretics,  who,  masking  under  the  garb  of  piety 
the  most  atrocious  wickedness,  had  of  late  publicly  maintained 
that  it  was  lawful  to  take  the  life  of  the  king."  The  sentence 
of  banishment  was  executed  only  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Parliament  of  Paris.*  In  other  parts  of  France — in  Languedoc, 
Gascony,  and  Lorraine — the  residence  of  the  Jesuits  was  con- 
nived at,  and  their  educational  labours  were  not  interrupted. 
No  sooner  had  the  king  reconciled  himself  with  the  Holy  See, 
than  representations  reached  him  from  many  quarters  in  behalf 
of  the  proscribed  followers  of  Loyola.  Cardinal  de  Medicis,  the 
Pope's  legate,  assured  him,  in  the  name  of  the  Holy  Father, 
that  he  could  not  do  a  greater  service  to  the  Church  than  by 
taking  measures  for  their  restoration,  and  reminded  him  that  he 
had  made  a  promise  to  that  effect  on  the  occasion  of  his  absolu- 
tion. Apology  after  apology  was  put  forth  by  members  and 
friends  of  the  Order,  elaborately  defending  it  from  the  imputa- 
tions of  regicide  and  revolutionary  doctrine,  and  indignantly 
repudiating  all  complicity  with  the  traitorous  deed  of  Chatel. 
The  popular  persuasion,  that  the  Jesuits  were  intimately 
leagued  with  the  enemies  of  France,  and  were  unscrupulous 
agents  of  Philip  of  Spain,  was  combated  with  vehement 
earnestness.  .  At  length,  on  the  1st  of  January,  1600,  the 
project  of  re-establishment  was  mooted  in  the  royal  Council; 
the  king,  however,  acted  with  caution,  and,  finding  that  several 
of  the  ministers  were  adverse  to  it,  postponed  the  matter  for 
further  consideration. 

Three  years  later  it  was  resumed,  and  this  time  with  practical 
effect.     Just  at  that  moment,  the  French  Protestants  held  a 


*  The  "ressort"  of  the  Parliament 
of  Paris  included  more  than  150  in- 
ferior tribunals— "preaidiaux,"  "  bail- 
liages,"  "  se'nechausse's,"  "  chatellenies," 


&c.,  distributed  in  various  provinces, 
— the  Isle  de  France,  Orleanois,  Maine', 
Touraine,  Anjou,  Berry,  Nivernois, 


Champagne,  and  Picardy. 


Q   2 


228 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  V. 


general  Synod  at  Gap  in  Dauphine;  and  here,  among  other 
extravagant  proceedings,  they  added  to  their  Confession  a  new 
article  of  faith,  affirming  the  Pope  to  be  Antichrist — the  "son 
of  perdition"  predicted  by  St.  Paul — the  ''beast"  of  Daniel 
and  of  the  Apocalypse.  It  appears  that  they  adopted  this 
offensive  dogma  because  it  was  thought  necessary  to  support 
one  of  their  pastors  named  Ferrier,  who  had  lately  maintained 
the  same  sentiment,  and  had  encouraged  his  brethren  in  holding 
like  intemperate  language.  The  good  sense  of  Sully  revolted 
against  this  strange  piece  of  synodical  legislation.  He  remon- 
strated with  some  of  the  leading  ministers  ;  and  his  arguments, 
accompanied  by  an  intimation  of  the  King's  serious  displeasure, 
procured  at  length  the  suppression  of  the  article  in  question. 
The  Pope,  however,  was  so  vehement  in  his  indignation,  that 
Henry  found  considerable  difficulty  in  appeasing  him ;  and, 
according  to  Sully's  account,  it  was  chiefly  with  a  view  to  give 
his  Holiness  satisfaction  for  the  offence  that  he  now  finally 

» 

determined  on  re-establishing  the  Jesuits.* 

During  a  visit  which  the  king  made  to  Metz,  in  March,  1603, 
certain  of  the  Jesuit  fathers  were  received  by  him  at  a  private 
audience,  being  introduced  by  the  Duke  of  Epernon  and  a  favourite 
courtier  named  Fouqnet  de  la  Varenne.f  The  Provincial,  Ignace 
Armand,  took  care  to  improve  the  opportunity,  and  succeeded  in 
obtaining  from  his  Majesty  an  assurance  that  they  would  not 
have  long  to  wait  for  decisive  measures  in  their  favour.  On  his 
return  to  the  capital,  Henry  assembled  the  Council  of  State,  and 
laid  before  them  his  design  for  re-instating  the  Society  of  Jesus. 
The  members  present  were  the  Constable  Montmorency,  the 
Chancellor  Bellievre,  the  Secretary  of  State  Villeroi,  Sully, 
Chateauneuf,  Pontcarre,  and  the  presidents  of  the  Parliament 
Sillery,  De  Vic,  Calignon,  Caumartin,  Jeannin,  and  De  Thou. 
The  majority  of  these  were  favourably  disposed  towards  the 
Jesuits ;  and  as  it  was  understood  that  the  monarch's  mind  was 
already  made  up  on  the  subject,  little  or  no  discussion  took  place. 


*  Economies  Poyales,  Liv.  xvi. 

t  "Le  plus  puissant  solliciteur  des 
Jesuites  elait  Guillaume  Fouquet  de  la 
Varenne,  qui,  des  plus  bas  offices  de  la 
maison  du  Hoi,  s'e'tait  eleve  jusque  dans 
le  cabinet  par  ses  complaisances  et  par 
les  ministeres  de  volupte  qui  sont  les 


plus  agreables  aupres  des  grands.  Ce 
favori  Stait  Lieutenant-Gene'ral  de  la 
province  d'Anjou,  Gouverneur  de  La 
Fleche,  Abbe  d'Ainay  de  Lyon,  &c." — 
Bonav.  Eacine,  Abreg.  de  I'Hist.  Eccks. 
torn.  x.  p.  164. 


A.D.  1603.         THE  JESUITS  RECALLED  TO  FRANCE.  229 

The  only  objector  was  De  Thou,  who  proposed  that  the  case 
should  be  referred  to  the  Parliament,  and  that  its  decision  should 
be  final.  The  veteran  Sully  avoided  giving  his  opinion  at  the 
Council  board ;  but  the  next  day  he  sought  an  interview  with 
Henry,  and  candidly  expressed  his  sense  of  the  inexpediency  and 
danger  of  the  proposed  scheme.  His  arguments  were  strongly 
flavoured,  as  was  natural,  by  his  religious  prejudices  ;  but  they 
displayed  at  the  same  time  remarkable  sagacity  and  foresight. 
He  urged  that  the  Jesuits,  adepts  as  they  were  notoriously  in 
all  the  arts  of  intrigue,  would  not  fail  to  stir  up  bitterness  and 
animosity  between  his  Majesty's  subjects  of  the  two  rival  com- 
munions; that,  if  restored  unconditionally,  they  would  make 
such  use  of  the  various  expedients  at  their  command,  in  private 
familiar  intercourse,  in  the  pulpit,  and,  above  all,  in  the  con- 
fessional, as  would  array  class  against  class  in  open  enmity, 
and  sooner  or  later  precipitate  the  kingdom  once  more  into 
civil  war.  He  feared,  moreover,  that  they  would  completely 
gain  the  ear,  and  perhaps  the  heart,  of  the  monarch  himself; 
and  would  exercise  their  influence  by  excluding  from,  and  ad- 
mitting to,  his  presence  and  councils  whatever  individuals  they 
pleased.  He  reminded  him,  again,  of  the  absolute  subserviency 
of  the  Jesuits  to  their  General  and  to  the  Pope ;  the  former 
of  whom  was  always  a  Spaniard,  while  the  latter  was  depen- 
dent upon  the  King  of  Spain  for  the  security  of  his  Italian 
possessions.  Lastly,  he  appealed  to  Henry's  personal  expe- 
rience of  their  ill-will,  and  pointed  out  that  it  was  their 
interest  to  place  another  prince  upon  the  throne,  in  whom 
they  might  hope  to  find  a  more  passive  instrument  of  their  own 
purposes. 

Some  of  these  anticipations  have  almost  a  prophetic  air,  when 
we  regard  them  in  connection  with  certain  passages  in  the  sub- 
sequent history  of  the  Jesuits  in  France. 

Henry,  in  reply,  told  Sully  that,  as  he  was  now  situated,  he 
must  of  necessity  do  one  of  two  things ;  either  completely 
reinstate  the  Jesuits,  or  expel  them  from  France  more  rigorously 
than  ever.  In  the  latter  case  they  would  be  driven  to  extremities, 
and  would  inevitably  embark  in  desperate  conspiracies  against 
his  life ;  and,  in  spite  of  all  precautions,  they  might  one  day 
succeed  in  their  design.  This,  it  appears,  was  a  risk  which  even 
the  chivalrous  Henry  had  no  mind  to  incur  if  he  could  avoid 


230 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH, 


CHAP.  V. 


it.*  The  force  of  such  a  consideration  was,  of  course,  irre- 
sistible. Sully  remained  silent;  and  the  king  proceeded  to 
give  effect  to  his  determination. 

The  ordonnance  recalling  the  Jesuits  was  signed  at  Eouen  in 
September,  1603  ;  but  on  being  presented  to  the  Parliament  of 
Paris  for  registration,  it  met  with  a  warm  and  obstinate  resist- 
ance. The  magistrates  proceeded  in  a  body  to  the  Louvre, 
headed  by  their  first  president,  Achille  de  Harlai ;  who,  in  a 
speech  full  of  energetic  eloquence,  laboured  to  dissuade  the 
sovereign  from  a  step  so  pregnant  with  disaster  both  to  the  royal 
person  and  to  the  State.  "  His  harangue,"  says  Dupleix,f  "  was 
an  outrageous  philippic,  crammed  with  all  the  abuse  which  had 
been  heaped  on  the  Society  in  the  pleadings  of  Pasquier  and 
Arnauld,  the  Catechism  of  the  said  Pasquier,  and  by  the  author 
of  the  Franc-advis,  rather  than  a  fair  and  reasonable  remon- 
strance." It  was,  however,  a  performance  of  considerable  talent. 
De  Harlai  adverted  to  the  strong  opposition  which  had  been 
raised  by  the  Sorbonne  and  by  the  clergy  of  all  ranks  to  the 
original  introduction  of  the  Jesuits  into  France.  The  Sorbonne 
had  warned  the  Government  of  that  day  that  if  this  step  were 
taken,  it  would  not  be  for  edification  but  for  destruction.  He 
enlarged  on  the  dangerous  character  of  an  order  of  men  claiming 
to  be  exempt  from  all  jurisdiction,  spiritual  and  temporal, 
except  that  of  the  Pope;  and  holding,  as  a  fundamental 
maxim,  that  the  Pope  may  excommunicate  kings,  and  that 
an  excommunicated  king  is  no  better  than  a  tyrant,  so  that  all 
men  may  lawfully  rise  against  him.  He  intimated  to  the  king 
that  his  predecessors,  even  those  who  were  most  disposed  to 
govern  absolutely,  had  always  been  accustomed  to  regulate 
affairs  connected  with  public  justice  by  the  advice  of  their 
Parliament,  and  to  submit  their  own  inclinations  to  the  autho- 
rity of  the  laws.  "  We  entreat  you,  Sire,"  he  concluded,  "  to 
uphold  these  powers  which  have  always  been  legally  vested  in 
your  Parliamentary  Courts.  If  they  should  unhappily  be  lost, 
pardon  us  for  observing  that  the  loss  would  fall,  not  upon  the 
Parliament,  but  upon  yourself." 


*  "  Le  roi  repondit  en  particulier  a 
ses  ainia  et  aux  gens  du  Parlement, 
qui  lui  parlaient  centre  les  Jesuites, 
Assurez-moi  de  ma  vie.  Ce  monarque 
si  intrepide  avoit  perdu  la  crainte  de 


toutes  choses,  hormis  du  couteau  Je- 
suitique." — D'Aubigne,  Hist.  Univer- 
selle,  Part  II. 

t  Scipion  Dupleix,  Hist,  de  France, 
Henri  IV.,  p.  346.    Paris,  1633. 


A.D.  1604.         THE  JESUITS  RECALLED  TO  FEANCE.  231 

The  friends  of  the  Jesuits  were  somewhat  apprehensive  that 
Henry  might  not  be  able  to  reply  off-hand  to  the  studied  and 
dignified  address  of  the  Chief  Magistrate.*  He  acquitted 
himself,  however,  with  an  ease,  force,  and  mastery  both  of 
argument  and  language,  which  far  surpassed  their  expectations. 
De  Thou,  and  other  writers  hostile  to  the  Order,  contest  the 
authenticity  of  the  speech  commonly  attributed  to  his  Majesty 
on  this  occasion ;  but  there  are  no  sufficient  grounds  for  question- 
ing it.  It  is  given  at  length  by  the  contemporary  historian 
Pierre  Matthieu,  who  is  known  to  have  been  furnished  with 
materials  for  his  work  by  the  king  himself;  and  all  the  evidence 
derivable  from  its  style  and  phraseology  is  strongly  in  favour  of 
its  genuineness.! 

Henry  assured  them  that  the  difficulties  which  they  had 
started  were  only  such  as  he  himself  had  fully  considered  during 
many  years  past ;  and  hinted  that,  in  taking  cognizance  of  state 
affairs  of  that  description,  they  had  travelled  beyond  their 
legitimate  sphere.  With  regard  to  the  Colloquy  of  Poissy  (on 
which  occasion  the  Society  had  first  succeeded  in  establishing 
itself  in  France),  he  observed  that  things  would  have  gone 
better  for  the  Catholics  if  all  had  played  their  part  with  the 
same  ability  as  was  displayed  by  a  certain  Jesuit  (Lainez),  who 
fortunately  happened  to  be  there.  "  Ignorance,"  he  continued, 
"  has  been  in  all  ages  the  malicious  enemy  of  knowledge ;  and 
I  have  remarked  that  ever  since  I  first  began  to  speak  of  re- 
storing the  Jesuits,  two  classes  of  men  have  been  foremost  in 
opposing  it, — those  who  belong  to  the  pretended  Reformed 
religion,  and  ecclesiastics  of  disreputable  lives;  and  this  has 
served  to  make  them  all  the  more  entitled  to  esteem.  If  the 
Sorbonne  formerly  condemned  them,  this  was  done,  after  your 
own  example  at  present,  without  knowing  much  about  them  ;  I 
believe  that  the  existing  Theological  Faculty  estimates  them 
very  highly.  The  University  opposed  them,  because  they  teach 

*  D'Avrigny,  M£m.  Chrcmol.,  torn.  i.  those  times,  and  the  grave  party  interests 
p.  27.  The  work  of  this  learned  Jesuit  involved  in  the  controversies  then  pre- 
cominences  with  the  seventeenth  cen-  vailing,  it  is  necessary  to  make  a  certain 
tury.  The  great  ability  with  which  it  allowance  for  prepossessions  and  ten- 
is  executed,  and  the  amount  of  estima-  dencies  from  which  he  could  not  possi- 
tion  generally  accorded  to  it,  justify  me  bly  have  been  altogether  exempt, 
in  referring  to  it  throughout  the  period  f  See  also  the  Lettreg  ^Missives  de 
which  it  embraces.  1  believe  D'Avrigny  Henri  IV.,  published  by  authority  of 
to  be  upon  the  whole  an  accurate,  trust-  the  French  Government,  torn.  vi.  p.  182, 
worthy  writer ;  nevertheless,  when  we  and  Schcell,  Cours  d'Hisloire  des  Etats 
consider  the  critical  circumstances  of  Europ&ns,  torn.  xvii. 


232  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  V. 

better  than  others ;  this  is  the  real  reason  why  the  University 
is  deserted,  as  you  complain,  since  their  expulsion,  and  why 
students  flock  after  them  to  Douai  and  other  places,  both 
within  and  beyond  the  kingdom.  You  say,  again,  that  the 
Jesuits  attract  superior  minds,  and  choose  their  members  from 
among  the  best  of  men.  I  commend  them  for  so  doing.  I 
desire  that  the  best  men  we  can  procure  should  be  chosen  to 
serve  as  soldiers,  and  that  none  but  those  who  deserve  it  shall 
be  admitted  to  seats  on  the  judicial  bench ;  I  wish  that  in  all 
professions  virtue  and  merit  should  be  the  main  distinctions 
between  man  and  man.  It  is  objected  that  they  gain  entrance 
into  cities  and  towns  by  whatever  means  they  can ;  so  do  others. 
I  myself  was  obliged  to  find  my  way  to  the  throne  as  best  I 
might.  But  it  must  be  allowed  that  through  their  perseverance 
and  steadiness  of  conduct  the  Jesuits  succeed  in  accomplishing 
whatever  they  undertake  ;  and  their  scrupulous  care  to  main- 
tain their  original  constitution  without  change  will  ensure  to 
them  a  long  existence. 

"  It  is  alleged  that  the  King  of  Spain  avails  himself  of  their 
services.  I,  for  my  part,  declare  that  I  mean  to  do  the  same ; 
for  why  should  France  be  in  a  less  advantageous  position  in  this 
respect  than  Spain?  I  consider  the  Jesuits  needful  to  my 
empire ;  they  are  native  Frenchmen,  and  owe  me  allegiance  as 
their  sovereign.  I  do  not  wish  to  be  on  bad  terms  with  any 
class  of  my  natural  born  subjects ;  and  if  there  should  be  any 
danger  of  their  betraying  my  secrets  to  my  enemies,  be  sure 
that  I  shall  not  communicate  to  them  anything  more  than  I 
think  proper.  Be  so  good  as  to  allow  me  to  manage  this  affair; 
I  have  settled  many  others  far  more  difficult ;  do  not  trouble 
yourselves  further  in  the  business  than  to  obey  my  orders." 

Notwithstanding  the  king's  peremptory  tone,  the  Parliament 
still  demurred,  and  attempted  to  interpose  modifications  before 
they  consented  to  register  the  ordonnance.  Henry  rejected 
their  suggestions,  and  insisted  on  unqualified  and  speedy  com- 
pliance. The  Parliament  at  length  registered  the  edict  on 
the  2nd  of  January,  1604,  and  the  Jesuits  resumed  their  legal 
position  in  France. 

Several  conditions,  however,  were  appended  to  this  act  of 
grace.  The  edict  specified  the  localities  in  which  the  Order  was 
authorized  to  possess  colleges :  namely,  Toulouse,  Auch,  Bor- 
deaux, Rodez,  Limoges,  Perigueux,  Aubenas,  Touruon,  Beziers, 


A.D.  1604.         THE  JESUITS  EECALLED  TO  FRANCE.  233 

and  Le  Puy;  to  these  were  now  added  three  others,  Lyons, 
Dijon,  and  La  Fleche.  In  no  other  place  was  their  residence  to 
be  fixed  without  the  king's  express  permission.  They  were  all 
to  be  native  Frenchmen,  and  were  to  take  an  oath  before 
the  royal  officers,  "without  mental  reservation,"  that  they 
would  never  attempt  anything  to  the  prejudice  of  the  king  or 
against  the  tranquillity  of  the  State.  They  were  to  be  incapable 
of  acquiring  real  property  by  purchase,  gift,  or  otherwise,  with- 
out the  king's  permission;  nor  could  they  succeed  to  any 
inheritance  either  direct  or  collateral.  They  were  never  to 
infringe  the  rights  and  privileges  of  bishops,  of  civil  corporations, 
of  the  Universities,  or  of  religious  orders.  They  were  not  to 
preacb,  administer  the  Sacraments,  or  hear  confessions,  beyond 
the  walls  of  their  own  establishments,  unless  by  licence  from 
the  ordinary.  And  lastly,  one  member  of  their  body  was  to 
reside  constantly  at  Court,  in  the  quality  of  preacher,  to  be 
answerable  to  the  king  for  the  good  conduct  of  his  brethren.* 
Any  infraction  of  these  articles  was  to  be  punished  by  the  revo- 
cation of  the  present  edict. 

The  individual  selected  by  the  king  to  remain  near  his 
person  in  the  capacity  of  hostage  for  the  good  behaviour  of 
the  rest  of  the  fraternity  was  Pierre  Coton  or  Cotton,  a  native 
of  Nerondes  in  the  Forez,  where  he  was  born  in  1564.  At 
the  age  of  twenty  he  entered  the  Jesuit  college  at  Arona  in 
Piedmont ;  and  after  completing  his  noviciate,  he  studied  theo- 
logy with  singular  zeal  first  at  Milan  and  afterwards  at  Borne. 
Having  given  proof  of  distinguished  oratorical  talent,  Coton  was 
sent  by  his  superiors  to  Lyons,  where  he  acquired  a  first-rate 
reputation  as  a  preacher.  He  was  soon  employed  on  missions, 
and  engaged  in  polemical  discussions  with  the  Huguenots 
throughout  the  southern  provinces.  His  success  was  almost  un- 
exampled. At  Nismes,  in  September,  1600,  he  held  a  debate 
with  the  Protestant  minister  Chamier,  who  had  charged  him 
with  falsifying  quotations  in  a  treatise  which  he  had  published 
on  the  Eucharistic  sacrifice  ;  hoping  thus  to  turn  the  tables  on 
the  Catholics  for  the  humiliation  which  had  just  been  inflicted 
on  Duplessis-Mornay.  Judges  having  been  appointed  on  both 
sides,  the  question  was  publicly  argued  in  the  presence  of 


See  the  Edict  in  Isambert,  A  nciennea  Lois  Franyaises,  torn.  xv.  p.  288. 


234  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  V. 

Cardinal  de  Sourdis,  the  Bishop  of  Nismes,  and  a  large  audience. 
Coton  cleared  himself  triumphantly  from  the  charge  of  misquo- 
tation, and  defended  his  doctrine  with  so  much  spirit,  learning, 
readiness  of  resource,  and  force  of  reasoning,  as  to  produce  a 
marked  impression.  The  president  Canaye  de  Fresne  arrived 
from  Paris  during  the  progress  of  the  discussion,  and  interposed 
his  influence  to  bring  it  to  a  close,  which  was  done  accordingly. 
That  conscientious  magistrate,  whose  judgment  was  already 
substantially  convinced  by  the  logic  of  Du  Perron  at  Fontaine- 
bleau,  made  his  public  recantation  of  Calvinism  a  few  months 
afterwards.  Thirty-five  Protestants  of  Nismes  followed  his 
example. 

The  talents  of  Father  Coton  were  well  known  to  Henry  IV. 
through  the  good  offices  of  Lesdiguieres,  who  admired  him 
warmly;  and  from  the  first  moment  of  his  introduction  at 
Court  the  King  seems  to  have  conceived  for  him  feelings  of 
extraordinary  regard.  A  vacancy  occurring  just  then  in  the 
Archbishopric  of  Aries,  Henry  offered  the  preferment  to  his  new 
favourite,  and  was  surprised  when  he  declined  it,  on  the  ground 
that  the  rules  of  his  Order  forbade  him  to  accept  any  ecclesi- 
astical dignity.  Such  a  proof  of  disinterestedness  is  said  to 
have  raised  the  Jesuits  still  higher  in  the  royal  esteem ;  and  it 
was  not  long  before  Coton  was  installed  in  the  deeply  respon- 
sible office  of  the  king's  confessor.* 

This  was  the  commencement  of  the  prodigious  empire  whicli 
was  exercised  by  the  Jesuits  over  the  entire  fabric  of  society  in 
France  during  the  seventeenth  century,  and  in  the  first  half  of 
the  eighteenth.  Having  once  gained  the  prestige  of  this  confi- 
dential relationship  with  royalty,  they  monopolised  the  position 
with  a  long  series  of  the  most  skilful  directors  that  the  Institute 
could  furnish ;  and  however  reprehensible  their  policy  may  have 
been  in  certain  instances,  there  cannot  be  a  clearer  proof  of  the 
superlative  ability  with  which  the  Order  was  governed  in  the 
earlier  part  of  its  career.  The  obligation  to  have  one  of  their 
number  in  constant  residence  at  Court,  imposed  originally  as  a 
mark  of  distrust  and  a  means  of  control,  was  thus  converted  by 


*  The  sudden  ascendency  of  F. 
Coton  over  Henry  occasioned  various 
specimens  of  epigrammatic  wit.  The  fol- 
lowing indicates  the  popular  suspicion 
that  the  new  confessor  was  an  agent  or 


confederate  of  the  enemies  of  France : — 

"  Autant  que  le  roi  fait  de  pas 
Le  Pere  Coton  1'accompugne ; 
Mais  ce  bon  roi  ue  songe  pas 
Que  le  fin  Coton  vitnt  d'hsi>a<jnt." 


A.D.  1605.         THE  JESUITS  RECALLED  TO  FRANCE.  235 

their  adroitness  into  an  instrument  of  moral  domination  almost 
without  example. 

One  of  the  first  points  carried  by  Father  Coton  after  assuming 
his  new  character  was  the  demolition  of  the  obelisk  on  the  site  of 
Jean  Chatel's  house,  which  mutely,  yet  eloquently,  denounced 
the  Order  as  the  instigators  of  his  crime.  It  was  removed  in 
July,  1605,  and  the  measure  provoked  no  small  amount  of 
sarcastic  merriment  among  the  Parisians.  In  one  pamphlet 
the  obelisk  was  personified,  and  made  to  declare  that  after  all 
its  fate  was  not  to  be  regretted,  since,  though  first  erected  as  an 
act  of  justice,  its  destruction  was  prompted  by  clemency  and 
compassion.*  Another  suggested  that  in  order  to  obliterate  all 
trace  of  the  condoned  offence,  the  king  ought  to  replace  the 
tooth  which  had  been  dashed  from  his  mouth  by  the  blow  of 
Chatel's  dagger. 

The  chateau  of  La  Fleche,  in  Anjou,  was  now  bestowed,  as 
a  token  of  distinguished  favour,  on  the  Jesuits,  and  became  a 
collegiate  seminary  under  their  direction.  The  King  endowed 
the  institution  with  princely  generosity.  The  most  accomplished 
members  of  the  Order  in  France, — among  them  Fathers  Petau, 
Caussin,  Cellot,  Mambrun,  Vavasseur — were  appointed  to  the 
professorial  chairs ;  and  in  the  course  of  a  few  years  La  Fleche 
attained  the  highest  reputation,  and  was  thronged  with  students 
from  all  parts  of  the  kingdom.  Rene  Descartes,  afterwards  the 
renowned  philosopher,  was  one  of  the  first  pupils  admitted 
within  its  walls. 

Similar  establishments  on  a  smaller  scale  were  founded  under 
royal  patronage  at  Bourges,  Poitiers,  Amiens,  Moulins,  and 
elsewhere ;  and  in  1608  the  Jesuits  received  permission  to  open 
a  house  in  the  metropolis.  In  the  same  year  the  king  thought 
proper  to  dispense  with  the  regulation  which  required  all 
Jesuits  domiciled  in  France  to  be  native-born  Frenchmen. 
Foreign  members  of  the  Order  were  thenceforth  to  share  all  the 
privileges  enjoyed  by  their  brethren  under  the  late  edict.  It 
was  not,  however,  till  several  years  later  that  they  obtained 
licence  to  give  public  lectures  at  Paris ;  nor  were  they  even  then 
admitted  to  the  corporate  body  of  the  University. 

In  the  transactions  which  we  have  been  reviewing,  as  well  as 


;  La  Piosopope'e  de  la  Pyraniide.'    See  Dulaure,  Histoire  de  Paris,  torn.  v. 


236 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  V. 


in  other  ecclesiastical  affairs  of  the  highest  moment,  Henry  IV. 
is  known  to  have  been  guided  by  the  counsels  of  an  illustrious 
prelate,  whose  character  and  ministry  left  so  deep  a  mark  on 
the  religious  society  of  his  age,  that  some  account  of  him  is 
indispensable  to  our  narrative. 

i  FRANCOIS  DE  SALES  cannot  be  claimed,  in  strict  accuracy,  as 
a  member  of  the  Gallican  Church.  He  was,  however,  inti- 
mately connected  with  France  by  education  and  early  associa- 
tion ;  he  maintained  a  close  intercourse  with  that  country 
throughout  life  ;  and  in  several  important  passages  of  his  history 
he  acted  with  the  national  bishops  and  clergy  rather  as  one  of 
their  own  body  than  as  a  foreigner. ' 

Sprung  from  one  of  the  most  ancient  and  distinguished 
houses  of  Savoy,  Francois  de  Sales  inherited  worldly  prospects 
attractive  in  no  common  degree.  From  his  boyhood,  however, 
he  discovered  a  decided  vocation  for  the  sacred  ministry ;  and 
disdaining  in  comparison  the  gifts  of  fortune,  the  allurements 
of  pleasure,  and  the  advantages  of  high  social  position,  he 
devoted  himself  with  full  purpose  of  heart  to  that  laborious 
career.  He  received  the  tonsure  at  the  age  of  eleven  ;  and 
after  some  elementary  instruction  at  the  college  of  Annecy,  he 
was  sent  to  pursue  his  studies  at  Paris  under  the  care  of  the 
Jesuits.  Here  his  preceptors  were  the  famous  Genebrard,  and 
Maldonatus  (Maldonat),  author  of  the  well-known  Commentary 
on  the  Gospels.*  Under  such  tuition  his  taste  for  ecclesiastical 
learning  and  for  a  religious  life  rose  to  intense  enthusiasm.  It 
was  to  no  purpose  that  his  father  procured  for  him  a  lucrative 
appointment  connected  with  the  Parliament  at  Chambery,  which 
would  have  opened  an  almost  certain  path  to  distinction  in  the 
legal  profession.  Francois  modestly,  but  steadily,  declined  it, 
and  remained  fixed  in  his  early  determination.  At  length  his 
father  consented  to  his  wishes,  though  not  without  considerable 
reluctance;  and  in  1592  he  was  ordained  deacon,  and  appointed 
prevot  of  the  cathedral  church  of  Annecy  f  by  Claude  de 
Granier,  titular  Bishop  of  Geneva.  Francois  de  Sales  at  once 
threw  himself  with  all  the  energies  of  his  impassioned  nature 


*  Marsollier,  Vie  de  S.  Fr.  de  Sales, 
torn,  i  p.  26. 

f  The  office  of  prevot  answers  nearly 
to  that  of  dean.  The  episcopal  See  had 


been  transferred  to  Annecy  in  1534, 
when  Calvinism  became  dominant  at 
Geneva. 


A.n.  1592. 


FRANgOIS  DE  SALES. 


237 


into  the  duties  of  the  pastoral  care;  in  which  his  zeal  and 
ability  became  so  conspicuous,  that  as  soon  as  he  was  admitted 
to  priests'  orders,  his  diocesan  entrusted  him  with  an  enterprise 
requiring  the  very  highest  ministerial  qualifications,  and  involv- 
ing no  small  share  of  personal  danger.  This  was  a  mission  for 
re-establishing  the  Catholic  religion  in  the  province  of  Chablais, 
and  in  the  bailliages  of  G-ex,  Ternier,  and  Gaillard,  where  it  had 
been  almost  totally  suppressed  by  the  Zwinglian  Eeforrnation 
fifty  years  before.  Accompanied  by  only  one  colleague,*  a 
kinsman  of  like  spirit,  FranQois  undertook  without  hesitation 
this  hazardous  task,  in  spite  of  the  tears,  intreaties,  and  remon- 
strances of  his  nearest  relatives.  The  inhabitants  of  the  Chablais 
were  a  rude,  ferocious  race,  and  of  that  fanatical  type  in  religion 
which  Calvinism  usually  engenders.  The  two  missionaries  met 
with  a  reception  which  might  have  daunted  the  bravest  heart. 
During  the  whole  of  the  first  year  they  endured  a  bitter  perse- 
cution. Coarse  abuse,  reckless  calumny,  cowardly  insults,  deadly 
menaces,  were  their  daily  portion :  oftentimes  their  lives  were  in 
imminent  peril,  and  they  were  forced  to  fly  from  "  the  madness 
of  the  people  "  into  the  recesses  of  the  forests,  f  These  trials 
they  supported  with  heroic  fortitude.  The  grossest  outrage 
never  overcame  their  gentleness  of  temper  ;  the  severest  hard- 
ships were  never  allowed  to  interrupt  the  progress  of  their 
labours.  At  last  the  tide  turned.  The  first  symptom  of  the 
change  was  a  remarkable  reformation  among  the  licentious 
soldiery  of  the  garrison  of  Thonon,  the  capital  of  the  district ; 
and  such  a  phenomenon  in  such  a  quarter  made  an  immediate 
impression  on  the  town  and  neighbourhood.!  The  impulse,  once 
given,  proved  irresistible.  This  practical  specimen  of  the  effect 
of  Catholic  teaching  was  a  triumphant  answer  to  the  falsehoods 
so  industriously  propagated  by  the  Calvinists ;  the  prejudices  of 
the  multitude  began  to  abate ;  the  instructions  of  Franpois  and 
his  companion,  so  long  scorned,  were  sought  with  avidity,  and 
received  with  admiring  gratitude.  Never  was  reaction  more 


*  His  cousin  Louis  de  Sales,  one  of 
the  canons  of  Anne'cy. 

t  Vie  de  S.  Fr.  de  Sales,  par  le  cure 
de  St.  Sulpice  (M.  Hamon),  torn.  i. 
Liv.  ii.  p.  153. 

I  Another  event  which  contributed 
much  to  the  advancement  of  the  Catholic 


cause  was  the  conversion  of  the  Baron 
d'Avully,  a  nobleman  of  high  character 
and  great  influence  in  those  parts,  who 
had  hitherto  been  a  determined  sup- 
porter of  Protestantism. — Vie  de  S.  Fr. 
de  Sales,  par  le  cure  de  St  Sulpice,  torn, 
i.  Liv.  ii.  p.  179. 


238  THE  GALLICAN  CHUBCH.  CHAP.  V. 

complete.  Day  after  day  fresh  conversions  were  announced,  to 
the  great  discomfiture  of  the  Protestant  ministers;  and  the 
flock  thus  happily  regained  by  the  Church  became  ere  long 
powerful  enough  to  effect  the  restoration  of  Catholic  worship  in 
the  principal  church  of  Thonon.  The  details  of  the  movement 
read  like  the  records  of  a  miraculous  age.  Six  hundred  indi- 
viduals are  said  to  have  yielded  to  the  matchless  eloquence  and 
pathos  of  a  single  discourse  of  Francois  de  Sales.  Some  of  his 
biographers  estimate  at  seventy-two  thousand  the  number  of  those 
who  were  reclaimed  from  Zwinglian  and  Calvinistic  error  during 
his  mission  in  the  Chablais.* 

In  less  than  four  years  from  the  commencement  of  the 
undertaking,  Francois  de  Sales  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing 
Catholicism  fully  re-instated,  and  its  ordinances  universally  fre- 
quented, throughout  the  district  which  had  been  the  scene  of 
his  labours.  His  success  drew  forth  warm  congratulations  from 
his  sovereign  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  from  the  aged  Bishop  of 
Geneva,  and  from  Cardinal  de  Medici,  Papal  legate  at  the  court 
of  France.  Bishop  Granier  shortly  afterwards  named  him 
coadjutor  in  the  diocese  of  Geneva,  with  the  right  of  succession 
on  the  occurrence  of  a  vacancy.  Accepting  the  charge,  though 
with  hesitation  and  unfeigned  diffidence,  De  Sales  now  pro- 
ceeded to  Rome,  where  he  was  received  with  distinguished 
honour  by  the  reigning  Pontiff,  Clement  VIII.  Seated  in  the 
midst  of  a  crowded  consistory,  the  Pope  caused  the  bishop- 
designate  to  be  examined  in  his  presence  upon  various  points  of 
controversial  and  casuistical  divinity ;  the  object  being  (as  it 
appears)  to  give  him  an  opportunity  of  displaying  his  unrivalled 
powers  and  acquirements  before  this  august  assembly.!  The 
examination  was  conducted  chiefly  by  Cardinals  Bellarmine 
and  Baronius,  but  occasionally  by  the  Holy  Father  himself. 
When  it  was  finished,  the  Pope  embraced  him,  hailed  him  as 
the  "  Apostle  of  the  Chablais,"  and  addressed  to  him  the  words 
of  the  royal  Preacher,  "  Bibe,  fili  mi,  aquam  de  cisterna  tua,  et 


*  Marsollier,  Vie  de  S.  Fr.  de  Sales,   j   abilities    resulting    from    hidden    sin. 
torn.  i.  p.  G6.  j  With  regard  to  the  latter  point,  the 


t  Among  the  subjects  on  which  he 
was  questioned  were  the  following  :  (1) 
The  formal  cause  of  the  blessedness  of 
the  saints.  (2)  Whether  bishops  have 
power  to  absolve  from  the  spiritual  dis- 


Pope  himself  ruled  it  in  the  negative  ; 
upon  which  Francois  at  once  expressed 
his  filial  submission  to  the  will  of  his 
Holiness. — Vie,  &c.,  par  le  cure'  de  S.  Sul- 
pice,  torn,  i.,  Liv.  iii.  p.  344. 


A.D.  1602.  FRANQOIS  DE  SALES.  239 

fluenta  putei  tui ;  deriventur  fontes  tui  foras,  et  in  plateis  aquas 
tuas  divide."  (Prov.  v.  15, 16.)  He  was  immediately  preconised 
coadjutor  to  the  Bishop  of  Geneva,  with  the  title  of  Bishop  of 
Nicopolis  in  partibus. 

Early  in  the  following  year  Fran9ois  de  Sales  was  summoned 
to  the  French  metropolis,  to  negociate  with  Henry  and  his 
ministers  in  favour  of  a  portion  of  the  flock  entrusted  to  him, 
who  had  recently  been  transferred  by  the  fortune  of  war  from 
Savoy  to  the  dominion  of  France.  By  the  treaty  of  Lyons,  con- 
cluded between  Henry  IV.  and  Charles  Emanuel  of  Savoy  in 
January,  1601,  the  "  Pays  de  Gex  "  was  ceded,  or  rather  restored, 
to  France,  together  with  the  adjoining  districts.  The  bailliage 
of  Gex  contained  thirty-seven  parishes,  and  about  thirty  thousand 
inhabitants,  of  whom  the  great  majority  were  Calvinists.  On 
behalf  of  the  Catholic  minority,  the  bishop-coadjutor  petitioned, 
1st,  that  the  Catholic  religion  might  be  freely  exercised  in  all 
places  within  the  bailliage  where  it  had  prevailed  before  the 
religious  troubles ;  and  2ndly,  that  the  Church  property  which 
had  been  illegally  seized  in  the  so-called  Reformation  should  be 
restored  to  the  Catholic  clergy  and  conventual  houses.  These 
were  points  upon  which  it  was  not  easy  to  obtain  satisfaction 
from  the  French  Government.  The  Secretary  Yilleroi  hesi- 
tated, temporized,  procrastinated ;  and  Francois  de  Sales  found 
himself  unavoidably  detained  at  Paris  for  many  months.  His 
sojourn  there  was  memorable  for  results  of  deep  importance  to 
the  welfare  of  the  Gallican  Church. 

The  course  of  Lent  sermons  in  the  Chapel  of  the  Louvre, 
for  the  year  1602,  was  preached,  as  already  noticed,  by  the 
coadjutor  of  Geneva ;  and  several  interesting  cases  of  conversion 
are  recorded  to  have  followed  among  Calvinists  of  the  upper- 
classes.  The  king  treated  him  from  the  first  with  extreme 
reverence  and  admiration,  and  often  consulted  him  upon  matters 
of  the  most  private  nature  affecting  his  conscience.  Nor  was 
the  bishop  chargeable  with  aught  of  that  unworthy  complaisance 
which  is  so  great  a  snare  to  courtly  ecclesiastics  under  like  cir- 
cumstances. His  Majesty  left  it  distinctly  on  record,  that 
"  M.  de  Geneve  never  flattered  him."  No  man  could  be  better 
qualified,  by  the  rare  combination  of  fervent  devotion  and 
spirituality  of  mind  with  great  practical  sagacity  and  energy, 
to  take  the  lead  in  works  of  Church  reformation  and  Christian 


240  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  V. 

beneficence.  Applications  now  arrived  from  all  quarters  for  his 
advice  and  co-operation.  Every  new  undertaking  was  sub- 
mitted to  him  for  approval ;  no  gathering  for  any  purpose  con- 
nected with  the  work  of  the  Church  was  reckoned  complete 
without  his  presence;  his  services  as  a  spiritual  guide  were 
sought  with  the  utmost  eagerness  in  every  grade  of  society. 
Nothing  was  talked  of  in  Paris  but  the  virtues  of  the  coadjutor 
of  Geneva; — his  gentleness,  his  tenderness,  his  patience,  his 
charity,  his  disinterestedness,  his  never-failing  serenity  and 
equanimity  of  temper. 

Henry  IV.  repeatedly  attempted  to  induce  Francois  de  Sales 
to  take  up  his  abode  permanently  in  France.  "  Bemain  with 
me,  M.  de  Geneve,"  said  the  monarch ;  "  I  will  obtain  for  you 
richer  preferment,  more  desirable  employments,  than  any  which 
the  Duke  of  Savoy  has  to  dispose  of."  But  the  good  bishop's 
ambition  did  not  lie  in  this  direction.  He  explained  to  Henry 
that  he  was  not  at  liberty  to  form  any  fresh  ecclesiastical  con- 
nexion ;  he  was  already  united  to  a  spouse  who  commanded  all 
his  interest,  care,  and  affection ;  and  he  could  not  be  so  ungene- 
rous as  to  abandon  her  because  she  was  poor.*  He  quitted 
Paris  on  his  return  to  his  diocese  in  the  autumn  of  1602;  and 
during  the  journey  received  tidings  of  the  death  of  Bishop 
Granier,  and  of  his  own  succession  to  the  see.  On  the  8th  of 
December,  1602,  he  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Geneva  by  the 
Archbishop  of  Vienne,  Metropolitan  of  the  province. 

Among  other  results  traceable  to  the  influence  of  this  gifted 
prelate  may  be  mentioned  the  establishment  in  France  of  the 
order  of  Carmelite  nuns  of  the  reform  of  St.  Theresa  of  Spain. 
In  our  own  days  of  sober,  undemonstrative,  rational  religion,  it 
is  not  easy  to  comprehend  the  eagerness  of  French  Catholics  in 
the  seventeenth  century  to  introduce  into  the  kingdom  this 
extreme  type  of  cloistered  asceticism.  The  highest  and  noblest 
in  the  land  were  ardently  engaged  in  the  scheme.  Princesses 
of  the  blood-royal  were  among  its  chief  promoters.  Catherine, 
Antoinette,  and  Marguerite,  daughters  of  the  Duke  of  Longue- 
ville  by  Marie  de  Bourbon,  Duchess  of  Estouteville,  though 
nurtured  amid  the  luxuries  and  fascinations  of  a  court,  were 
models  of  devout  piety  and  active  charity.  Two  of  them  had 


Vie  de  S.  Fr.  de  Sales,  par  le  cure  de  S.  Sulpice,  torn.  i.  Liv.  iii.  p.  407. 


A.D.  1602.       THE  REFORMED  CARMELITES  IN  FRANCE. 


211 


formed  at  an  early  age  the  resolution  to  lead  a  single  life  ;  the 
third,  Antoinette,  was  married  to  Charles  de  Gondi,  Marquis 
of  Belleisle ;  but,  upon  his  death,  she  renounced  the  world  for 
the  cloister,  and  took  the  veil  in  the  Feuillantine  convent  at 
Toulouse.  These  three  princesses  were  naturally  looked  up  to 
as  the  patronesses  of  every  new  design  for  the  advancement  of 
Catholicism  in  France ; — a  distinction  which  they  shared,  how- 
ever, with  many  other  personages  of  exalted  station, — their 
sister-in-law  Catherine  de  Gonzague,  Duchess  of  Longueville,* 
Anne  de  Caumont,  Countess  of  St.  Pol,  Catherine  of  Lorraine, 
Duchess  of  Nevers,  the  Duchess  of  Mercosur,  Madame  de 
Magnelais,  and  others,  whose  names  will  occur  in  our  subsequent 
pages.  But  the  person  who  became  the  most  direct  instrument 
in  the  adoption  of  the  reformed  Carmelite  rule  in  France  was 
Barbara  d'Avrillot,  wife  of  Pierre  Acarie  de  Villemor,  one  of 
the  maitres  des  comptes  at  Paris.  Nature  had  endowed  this 
lady  with  extraordinary  energy  and  force  of  character ;  and  she 
exhibited  from  her  youth  upwards  a  pattern  of  every  domestic 
and  social  virtue.  During  the  convulsions  of  the  League  it  was 
her  lot  to  endure  trials  and  privations  of  no  common  severity ; 
and  it  was  mainly  owing  to  her  admirable  management — her 
prudence,  activity,  and  courage — that  her  husband  and  family 
were  saved  from  utter  ruin.  Madame  Acarie  enjoyed  the 
highest  consideration  in  the  religious  society  of  Paris.  She  was 
consulted  like  an  oracle,  and  was  believed  by  her  friends  to 
enjoy  the  privilege  of  special  communications  from  above. 
Under  her  auspices  the  introduction  of  the  Carmelites  was  now 
discussed  in  frequent  conferences,  the  three  princesses  of  Longue- 
ville being  constant  attendants  at  these  meetings,  together  with 
Francois  de  Sales,  the  Abbe  (afterwards  Cardinal)  de  Be'rulle, 
M.  de  Marillac,  and  Andre  Duval,  an  eminent  doctor  of  the 
Sorbonne.t  Upon  their  solicitation  the  necessary  letters  patent 
were  granted  by  the  Crown ;  but  it  was  found  a  matter  of  great 
difficulty  to  obtain  the  services  of  some  professed  sisters  of  the 


*  Widow  of  Henry  of  Orleans  Duke 
of  Longueville.  In  gratitude  for  the 
recovery  of  her  son  after  a  dangerous 
accident,  she  founded  in  1617  a  second 
Carmelite  convent  in  the  Rue  Chapon, 
which  she  liberally  endowed.  The 
young  duke  afterwards  married  Anne 

VOL.  I. 


Ge"nevieve  de  Bourbon,  who  was  the 
celebrated  Duchess  of  Longueville  of 
the  Fronde. 

t  Duval  wrote  a  biography  of 
Madame  Acarie  :  La  Vie  de  Sceur  Marie 
de  V Incarnation,  par  le  P.  Duval.  Paris, 
1621. 

R 


242  THE  GALLICAN  CHUECH.  CHAP.  V. 

order  from  Spain,  whose  presence  was  deemed  essential  to 
the  foundation  of  the  institution  at  Paris.  The  obstacle  was 
at  length  surmounted  through  the  self-denying  exertions  of  the 
Abbe  de  Berulle,  who  made  a  journey  to  Spain  for  the  purpose  ; 
no  trifling  undertaking  in  those  days.  In  October,  1604,  six 
Carmelite  nuns  arrived  at  Paris,  and  were  installed  in  a  con- 
ventual building  which  had  been  prepared  for  them  in  the 
Faubourg  S.  Jacques;  the  ancient  priory  of  Notre  Dame  des 
Champs,  a  dependency  of  the  great  Abbey  of  Marmoutier. 
Shortly  afterwards  Queen  Marie  de  Medicis  visited  the  convent 
in  state,  with  the  princesses  and  a  brilliant  train;  on  which 
occasion  seven  ladies,  who  had  been  carefully  disciplined  in  all 
the  usages  of  the  rule  under  the  superintendence  of  Madame 
Acarie,  made  their  profession,  and  assumed  the  habit  of  the 
Order.  One  of  them  was  Charlotte,  Marquise  de  Breaute, 
daughter  of  De  Harlai  de  Sanci,  one  of  the  favourite  ministers 
of  Henry  IV.  *  It  was  not  long  before  this  example  was  fol- 
lowed by  other  devout  women  of  the  higher  ranks ; — the  three 
daughters  of  Madame  Acarie,  a  daughter  of  the  Due  de  Brissac, 
Madame  de  Chandenier,  sister  of  Cardinal  de  la  Kochefoucauld, 
and  Madame  de  Berulle,  daughter  of  the  President  de  Seguier, 
and  mother  of  the  future  Cardinal. 

The  French  Carmelites  increased  rapidly  in  numbers  and 
reputation.  So  early  as  the  year  1605,  two  additional  convents 
were  founded,  one  at  Pontoise,  the  other  at  Dijon ;  and  in  the 
course  of  a  few  years  similar  communities  were  established  at 
Amiens,  Tours,  Rouen,  and  Bordeaux.  By  the  close  of  the 
century  the  Order  possessed  no  fewer  than  sixty- three  houses 
in  different  parts  of  France.f 

Pope  Paul  V.,  by  a  brief  of  April  17,  1614,  placed  the  Car- 
melite sisterhoods  in  France  under  the  government  of  three 
ecclesiastics,  De  Berulle,  Gallemand,  and  Duval ;  the  first- 
named  being  appointed  Visitor-General.  This  arrangement 
gave  rise  to  considerable  dissatisfaction,  inasmuch  as  hitherto 
the  superiors  of  the  Carmelites  had  always  been  members  of 


*  See  the  life  of  the  "Mc-re  Marie  de   I  Jacques,  elected  in  1616,  and  re-elected 
Jesus,"  in  the  appendix  to  M.  Victor      several  times. 


Cousin's  Jeunesse  de  Madame  de  Lon- 
guevitte.  She  was  the  second  prioress 
of  the  convent  in  the  Faubourg  S. 


t  V.  Cousin,  Jeunesse  de  Madame  de 
LongueviUc,  p.  335. 


A.D.  1020.       THE  REFORMED  CARMELITES  IN  FRANCE.  243 

the  same  monastic  society,  and  bound  by  the  same  vows,  with 
those  who  were  subject  to  their  rule.*  The  convent  of  Bordeaux 
raised  the  standard  of  opposition ;  the  nuns  renounced  De 
Berulle  as  their  visitor,  and  were  supported  in  their  opposition 
by  Cardinal  de  Sourdis,  Archbishop  of  Bordeax,  who  declared 
that  they  were  lawfully  subject  to  the  Superior-General  of  the 
Carmelites,  and  to  him  alone.  The  nuns  of  Saintes,  Limoges, 
Bourges,  and  Morlaix  hastened  to  imitate  their  ecclesiastical 
sisters ;  the  dissension  widened  rapidly,  and  assumed  the  aspect 
of  a  serious  scandal.  De  Berulle  appealed  to  Rome;  and  in 
due  time  two  briefs  arrived  from  Gregory  XV.  (March  20.  Sept. 
12,  1620)  confirming  the  original  appointments,  and  enjoining 
the  Carmelites  to  submit  without  further  question.  Even  this  was 
not  at  once  effectual.  The  refractory  nuns,  instigated  by  secret 
agitators,  appealed,  comme  d'abus,  to  the  Parliament;  a  step 
which  in  all  probability  would  have  protracted  the  contest  for  a 
length  of  time,  but  that  the  Government  now  interfered,  and 
two  peremptory  arrets  of  the  Council  of  State  (Sept.  16,  Dec. 
15,  1620)  enforced  the  execution  of  the  Pope's  briefs,  notwith- 
standing the  appeal  to  the  secular  courts.  Summary  measures 
followed.  Cardinals  de  la  Rochefoucald  and  La  Valette  were 
charged  with  the  duty  of  giving  effect  to  the  orders  of  the  Holy 
See,  and  they  deputed  as  their  commissioner  a  doctor  of  the 
Sorbonne  named  Louytre,  a  man  of  few  scruples  and  determined 
vigour.  He  forthwith  repaired  to  the  Carmelite  house  at 
Bourges,  and,  the  nuns  having  refused  to  make  submission,  he 
passed  sentence  of  excommunication  on  them  all.  Firm  in  their 
purpose  under  this  extreme  penalty,  they  quitted  their  convent 
and  their  native  land,  and  sought  an  asylum  in  the  Nether- 
lands. Similar  rigours  were  exercised  towards  the  Carmelites 


*  D'Avrigny  (Mfm.  Chronol.,  torn.  i. 
p.  30  et  geqq.)  describes  this  affair  of 
the  Carmelities  in  a  somewhat  satirical 


strongly  towards  the  system  which 
was  afterwards  known  as  Quietism.  It 
is  certain,  however,  that  the  mysticism 


vein,  insinuating  that  Madame  Acarie  I   of    St.   Francois    was  no  mere   state 

was  but  a  visionary  enthusiast,  and  of  passive  contemplation ;  his  was  not 

treating  De  Berulle  in  the  same  style.  a  religion  which  dispensed  with  good 

No  doubt  Madame  Acarie,  as  well  as  !   works  and  ignored  external  ordinances, 

other  disciples  of  Francois  de  Sales,  had  D'Avrigny,   as    a    Jesuit,  cannot    al- 

imbibed    largely  the  spirit    of   their  ;   together  divest  himself  of  party  pre- 

master,  whose  theology  was  decidedly  ',  judice  in  this  matter ;  De  Be'rulle,  in 

that  of  the  mystical  school.  His  theory  j   particular,  having  been  an  object  of 

of  the  love  of  God,  and  of  the  commu-  !  jealous  dislike  to  the  Order, 
nion   of   the    soul    with    Him,    tends 

R   2 


244 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  V. 


of  Bordeaux  and  of  S.  Pol  de  Leon  in  Brittany.  In  the  latter 
case  Louytre  went  so  far  as  to  lay  the  Cathedral  Church  under 
an  interdict,  and  to  suspend  the  bishop  of  the  diocese  from  his 
functions,  because  certain  novices  had  been  admitted  at  the 
excommunicated  convent  with  his  sanction.  These  violent  pro- 
ceedings led  to  further  troubles.  The  bishop  complained  to 
the  Assembly  of  the  Clergy ;  the  latter  passed  a  resolution 
denouncing  the  intolerant  conduct  of  the  Papal  Commissioner, 
and  sent  a  circular  letter  to  their  colleagues  throughout  France 
desiring  them  to  exclude  the  offender  from  communion  when 
he  visited  their  diocese,  until  he  had  given  public  satisfaction 
to  the  Church,  and  in  particular  to  the  Bishop  of  St.  Pol  de 
Leon.  The  Pope  (Urban  VIII.)  now  interposed,  and  annulled 
the  declaration  of  the  clergy.  The  clergy  remonstrated,  and 
asked  permission  to  hold  a  National  Council;  and  matters 
began  to  look  so  threatening,  that  Louis  XIII.  found  it  neces- 
sary to  intercede  with  the  Pope  in  behalf  of  the  indignant 
Gallican  priesthood,  who  on  this,  as  on  so  many  other  occasions, 
made  a  gallant  stand  in  defence  of  the  true  principles  of  eccle- 
siastical discipline.  Urban  yielded  to  the  king's  representa- 
tions ;  Louytre  was  instructed  to  apologize  to  the  bishops,  which 
he  seems  to  have  done  with  a  bad  grace  and  in  a  tone  of  self- 
justification  rather  than  of  humility ;  and  in  1625  this  unseemly 
strife  was  at  last  brought  to  a  conclusion.  The  excommuni- 
cated nuns  were  absolved,  but  were  compelled  nevertheless  to 
take  up  their  residence  in  Flanders.  Those  only  were  allowed 
to  remain  in  France  who  had  accepted  the  government  by  De 
Berulle  and  his  successors  imposed  on  them  by  the  Roman 
See.* 

It  would  appear  that  the  whole  of  this  disturbance  was  the 
secret  work  of  the  Jesuits.  In  their  jealousy  and  spite  against 
the  Oratoriaus,  of  which  congregation  De  Berulle  was  Superior- 
General,  they  stirred  up  the  Carmelites  to  contest  the  injunc- 
tions from  Rome,  hoping  that  the  result  might  be  detrimental 
to  the  influence  of  the  rival  Order.  "  Ces  choses,"  wrote  De 
B6rulle  to  Cardinal  Richelieu,  "  sont  plus  dignes  de  larmes  que 
de  paroles."  f 


*  D'Avrigny,  Mem.  Chronol,  torn,  i., 
p.  38. 

t  See    his    letter    to    the    cardinal, 


quoted  at  length  by  Guette'e,  Hist,  de 
I'Egl.  de  France,  torn.  x.  p.  77. 


A.D.  1614.  MADAME  ACARIE.  245 

Madame  Acarie,  having  been  left  a  widow  in  1613,  deter- 
mined to  devote  the  remainder  of  her  life  to  God  as  a  professed 
nun  of  the  Carmelite  Order.  Her  sons  were  grown  up,  and  her 
daughters,  as  we  have  seen,  already  inmates  of  the  cloister ;  and 
being  thus  freed  from  secular  ties,  she  no  longer  resisted  the 
yearnings  of  her  heart  after  the  cultivation  of  ascetic  virtue  in 
what  she  considered  its  most  perfect  form.  She  took  the  veil  in 
the  convent  at  Amiens  in  April,  1614,  under  the  name  of  Soeur 
Marie  de  1'Incarnation,  and  made  her  profession  in  the  follow- 
ing year.  In  this  new  state  of  life  she  became  a  bright  example 
of  Christian  humility,  self-sacrifice,  and  holiness ;  but  her 
health,  always  feeble,  gave  way  under  the  austerities  which  she 
daily  practised,  and  which  she  could  not  be  persuaded  to  relax. 
She  breathed  her  last  at  the  convent  of  Pontoise,  in  the  odour 
of  sanctity,  on  the  18th  of  April,  1618.  Her  extraordinary 
reputation  for  piety,  and  the  prodigious  influence  she  had  exer- 
cised on  the  religious  movement  of  her  time,  procured  for  her 
conspicuous  tokens  of  honour  after  death.  Her  tomb  at  Pon- 
toise was  visited  by  Queen  Anne  of  Austria,  by  the  Queen 
Dowager  Mary  of  Medici,  by  Francois  de  Sales,  by  Madame  de 
Chantal,  and  by  a  multitude  of  less  illustrious  pilgrims.  Soeur 
Marie  de  1'lncarnation  was  beatified  *  by  Pope  Pius  VI.,  May 
24,  1791. 

Another  proof  of  the  revival  of  religious  zeal  in  the  same 
direction  was  the  institution,  in  1607,  of  the  "  Congregation  des 
Filles  de  Notre  Dame  "  by  Jeanne  de  Lestonnac,  Marquise  de 
Monferrant.  This  was  a  sisterhood  devoted  to  the  education 
of  young  females ;  an  undertaking  of  urgent  necessity  at  that 
time,  since  the  Huguenots  had  made  energetic  efforts  for  the 
instruction  of  the  rising  generation,  and  had  lured  away  numbers 
of  young  Catholics  from  their  Mother  Church,  especially  in  the 
southern  provinces.  There  were  then  at  Bordeaux  two  Jesuit 
missionaries  who  had  acquired  a  high  reputation  by  their 
labours,  and  had  been  the  means  of  numerous  conversions  to 
the  faith  among  the  Protestant  sectaries.  They  had  long  felt 
the  importance  of  systematic  exertion  in  the  work  of  education ; 


*  Beatification    is    the   preliminary  limitations;    but  be  is  not  definitely 

step  to  canonization.    It  declares  the  added  to  the  catalogue  of  the  saints, 

individual  to  be  among  the  number  of  and  has  no  day  assigned  to  him  in  the 

the  blessed,  and  permits  the  faithful  to  calendar, 
honour  him  religiously,  with  certain 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  V. 

they  saw,  with  dismay,  that  through  the  negligence  of  the 
Church  in  this  branch  of  her  duty,  the  early  training  of 
the  young,  especially  of  young  females,  was  fast  passing  into  the 
hands  of  the  Huguenots ;  Catholic  parents  being  almost  com- 
pelled, through  dearth  of  competent  teachers  in  their  own 
communion,  to  entrust  their  children  to  the  separatists,  who  of 
course  imbued  them  with  their  own  misbelief.  It  seems  to  have 
struck  the  two  Jesuits  suddenly  and  simultaneously  that  Madame 
de  Lestonnac  (whom  as  yet  they  knew  only  by  report)  was  one 
eminently  fitted  to  take  the  lead  in  some  attempt  to  remedy  this 
evil.  The  proposal,  when  made  to  her,  coincided  exactly  with 
her  own  long-cherished  aspirations,  and  was  at  once  gratefully 
embraced.  There  were  obstacles  to  be  encountered,  however, 
in  the  execution  of  the  design.  The  Court  of  Rome  was  at 
this  time  disposed  rather  to  diminish  than  to  increase  the 
number  of  religious  houses;  and  Cardinal  de  Sourdis,  Arch- 
bishop of  Bordeaux,  when  applied  to  for  his  sanction,  proposed 
to  Madame  Lestonnac,  instead  of  founding  a  new  Order,  to  un- 
dertake the  restoration  of  an  existing  Ursuline  convent,  which 
of  late  years  had  fallen  into  decay.  This  she  declined.  Ere 
long  the  Cardinal's  sentiments  underwent  a  sudden  change ; — 
a  change  which  he  felt  to  be  so  extraordinary,  that  he  was  com- 
pelled to  attribute  it  to  a  directly  supernatural  interposition. 
He  now  cordially  approved  Madame  Lestonnac's  scheme,  and 
recommended  it  so  strongly  at  Home,  that  the  bull  for  carrying 
it  into  effect  was  despatched  without  further  difficulty.  The 
new  community  was  established  forthwith,  and  adopted  the  rule 
of  St.  Benedict.  In  its  internal  organization  it  was  formed 
upon  the  model  of  the  Society  of  Jesus ;  its  rules  and  discipline 
being  identical  with  those  prescribed  by  Ignatius  Loyola,  with 
such  slight  variations  as  were  required  by  reason  of  the  differ- 
ence of  the  sex  and  occupation.  On  the  1st  of  May,  1608, 
Cardinal  Sourdis  bestowed  the  veil  and  habit  of  the  Order,  with 
all  solemnity,  on  the  foundress  and  four  other  ladies  whom  she 
had  trained  as  her  associates.  The  letters  patent  were  granted 
by  Henry  IV.,  at  the  special  request  of  Marie  de  Medicis,  in 
March,  1609.  Such  was  the  origin  of  the  "'Congregation  de  la 
bienheureuse  et  toujours  Vierge  Mere  de  Dieu  Notre  Dame ;" — 
the  earliest  religious  foundation  in  France  devoted  to  female 
education.  The  work  prospered  from  the  beginning,  and  pro- 


A.D.  1609.      THE  VISITANDINES— MADAME  DE  CHANTAL.       247 

pagated  itself  with  wonderful  rapidity.  In  the  course  of  a  few 
years  these  sisterhoods  were  planted  in  all  the  principal  towns 
of  Languedoc  and  Gascony.  Wherever  they  settled  they 
rendered  invaluable  services ;  and  such  was  the  estimation  in 
which  they  were  held  that  in  process  of  time  they  were  invited 
into  Spain,  and  laboured  with  success  in  many  parts  of  Cata- 
lonia and  Castille.  Madame  Lestonnac  survived  to  witness,  in 
a  venerable  old  age,  the  remarkable  progress  of  her  pious  enter- 
prize.  She  died  in  1640,  at  the  age  of  eighty-four.* 

It  was  about  the  same  time  that  a  kindred  institution  took  its 
rise,  whose  history  is  one  of  special  interest,  namely  the  Order 
of  Visitandines,  founded  by  Francois  de  Sales  at  his  episcopal 
city  of  Annecy.  Its  first  Superior  was  one  of  the  most  cele- 
brated of  those  many  Christian  heroines  whom  that  age  produced 
in  France,  Jeanne  Francoise  de  Chantal. 

This  was  a  work  which  the  saintly  Bishop  of  Geneva  always 
contemplated  with  peculiar  satisfaction,  calling  it  "  his  joy  and 
crown."  For  many  years  he  had  been  meditating  a  scheme  for 
enlisting  in  the  service  of  the  Church  females  who  from  advanced 
age  or  delicate  health  were  unequal  to  the  severer  discipline  of 
cloistered  life.  Cases  came  under  his  observation  in  which 
such  persons,  finding  none  to  encourage  them  to  systematic 
exertion  or  to  direct  their  energies,  lost  all  interest  in  higher 
objects,  and  abandoned  themselves  listlessly  to  habits  of  mere 
worldliness.  During  a  visit  to  Dijon,  where  he  preached  in 
Lent,  1604,  the  Bishop  first  made  the  acquaintance  of  Madame 
de  Chantal,  who  had  recently  lost  her  husband,  and  was  residing 
there  with  her  father,  M.  de  Fremiot,  a  President  of  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Burgundy.  She  had  married  at  the  age  of  twenty  the 
Baron  de  Chantal,  of  the  same  province,  head  of  the  ancient 
family  of  Kabutin.  The  union  proved  happy,  but  was  abruptly 
terminated  by  the  death  of  the  Baron,  who  was  accidentally 
shot  by  a  companion  on  a  hunting  expedition.  Madame  de 
Chantal  now  made  a  vow  to  pass  the  rest  of  her  days  in  a  state 
of  devout  widowhood ;  and  in  token  of  this  life-long  consecra- 
tion to  her  Saviour,  she  imprinted  the  letters  I.H.S.  upon  her 
breast  with  a  hot  iron.  In  answer  to  her  importunate  prayers 
that  God  would  provide  for  her  a  guide  capable  of  conducting 

*  D'Avrigny,  Afc/n.  Chronol,  torn,  i.,  p.  60,  et  seqq.  Hclyot,  Hist,  des  Ordres 
Monust.,  torn.  vi. 


248  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  V. 

her  in  the  path  of  perfection,  we  are  told  that  one  day  she  saw 
before  her,  during  a  walk  in  the  country,  a  figure  in  soutane 
and  rochet,  with  a  square  cap  on  his  head, — in  short,  the  ordin- 
ary costume  of  a  bishop, — and  heard  at  the  same  moment  a 
voice  declaring  that  this  was  the  director  she  was  seeking,  and 
that  upon  him  she  might  in  all  security  repose  her  conscience. 
No  sooner  did  Franpois  de  Sales  make  his  appearance  in  the 
pulpit,  than  she  recognised  the  object  of  this  superhuman 
intuition;  while  the  bishop,  on  his  part,  notwithstanding  the 
difficulty  of  distinguishing  an  individual  among  the  crowd  of 
his  hearers,  became  conscious  of  the  presence  of  one  whom 
had  seen  in  a  vision  before  quitting  his  diocese,  and  whom  he 
he  now  knew  for  his  destined  coadjutor  in  the  work  which  lay 
so  near  his  heart.*  Madame  de  Chantal  at  once  placed  herself 
under  his  spiritual  rule  ;  and  after  some  time  spent  in  prepara- 
tory discipline,  the  bishop  unfolded  to  her  his  project  for  the 
Order  of  the  Visitation,  and  his  desire  that  she  should  undertake 
the  office  of  superior.  Although  she  received  the  proposal  with 
transport,  she  felt  nevertheless  that  there  were  manifold  obstacles 
which  must  retard,  and  might  altogether  prevent,  its  being 
realized.  Her  four  children  were  of  tender  age,  and  maternal 
responsibility  weighed  heavily  upon  her  mind ;  added  to  which 
her  father  was  at  this  time  labouring  under  infirmities  which 
made  him  almost  wholly  dependent  on  her  filial  care.  For 
years  she  waited  till  the  way  should  be  made  clear,  cherishing 
an  unfailing  confidence  that  in  the  end  her  heart's  desire  would 
be  accomplished.  In  course  of  time  her  eldest  daughter  was 
married  to  the  Baron  de  Thorens,  brother  of  the  Bishop  of 
Geneva.  The  two  younger  girls  were  then  placed  by  their 
mother  in  a  religious  house,  where  she  was  satisfied  that  they 
would  be  carefully  educated ;  and  her  only  son,  the  heir  of  the 
liabutins,  was  committed  to  the  charge  of  his  grandfather  De 
Fremiot,  one  well  fitted  for  the  trust  by  his  virtues  and  experi- 
ence.! Thus  it  came  to  pass  that  by  the  summer  of  1610 
Madame  de  Chantal  was  so  situated  that  she  could  follow  with 


*  Vie  de  S.  Fr.  de  Sales,  par  le  cur6 
de  S.  Sulpice,  torn.  i.  Liv.  iv.  p.  494. 

t  This  young  nobleman  was  killed  in 
1627,  in  defence  of  the  He  de  Khe 
against  the  English  under  the  Duke  of 


Buckingham.  His  only  child,  Marie 
de  Eabutin,  married  Henri,  Marquis  de 
Sevigne',  and  was  the  celebrated  Madame 
de  Sevigne'. 


A.D.  1610.  CARDINAL  DE  BERULLE.  249 

a  safe  conscience  the  track  which  she  believed  to  be  marked 
out  for  her  by  Providence ;  and  although,  when  the  hour  of 
parting  came,  the  separation  from  her  father,  her  children,  her 
friends  and  attached  dependents,  was  more  severe  than  she 
expected,  and  almost  overcame  her  fortitude,  she  was  enabled 
to  persevere ;  and  after  finally  disposing  of  her  property,  the 
whole  of  which  she  gave  up  to  her  relatives,  she  quitted  Dijon 
for  Annecy  in  June,  1610,  and  entered  on  her  new  career.  Her 
only  companions  were  two  young  ladies  of  good  family,  Jacque- 
line Favre  and  Charlotte  de  Brehard,  attracted  by  similar 
motives  towards  the  work  in  hand.  After  completing  their 
noviciate,  they  pronounced  their  vows,  which  were  simple,  before 
Francois  de  Sales  on  the  6th  of  June,  1611 ;  and  shortly  after- 
wards the  Pope  approved  the  Congregation  of  the  Visitation, 
and  placed  it  under  the  rule  of  St.  Augustine.  Such  was  the 
commencement  of  this  famous  Order,  which  so  prospered  in 
the  sequel,  that  even  in  the  lifetime  of  the  foundress  it  pos- 
sessed seventy-five  convents  in  France  and  Savoy.  By  the  close 
of  the  century  the  number  exceeded  one  hundred. 

Madame  de  Chantal  died  at  Moulins  in  December,  1641,  on 
her  return  from  a  visit  to  the  chateau  of  St.  Germain,  whither 
she  had  been  specially  summoned  by  Queen  Anne  of  Austria. 
She  was  beatified  by  Benedict  XIV.  in  1751,  and  canonized  in 
1767  by  Clement  XIII. 

In  the  history  of  the  ecclesiastical  reformation  which  dis- 
tinguished these  times,  the  name  of  Cardinal  de  Berulle  has 
been  so  often  mentioned  as  to  be  already  familiar  to  the  reader ; 
but  his  character  and  labours  were  too  important  to  be  passed 
over  without  more  detailed  examination.  Pierre  de  Berulle, 
descended  from  an  ancient  family  in  Champagne,  was  born  at 
the  chateau  of  Serilly,  near  Troyes,  in  February,  1575.  His 
father  was  a  councillor  of  the  Parliament  of  Paris ;  his  mother 
was  Louise  de  Seguier,  aunt  of  the  Chancellor  of  that  name,  who 
flourished  during  the  Fronde.  Pierre  de  Berulle  was  the  eldest 
son,  and  heir  to  the  family  estate ;  yet  he  determined  at  an 
early  age  to  embrace  the  ecclesiastical  profession.  The  motives 
which  governed  him  were  most  disinterested.  Possessed  of 
many  worldly  advantages,  he  was  free  from  all  taint  of  personal 
ambition ;  and  we  are  told  that  he  privately  made  a  vow  never 
to  accept  any  preferment  to  which  emolument  was  attached. 


250  THE  GALLICAN  CHUROH.  CHAP.  V. 

He  was  ordained  in  1599,  was  appointed  one  of  the  king's 
chaplains,  and  acted  as  assistant  to  Cardinal  Du  Perron  at  the 
conference  of  Fontainebleau.  De  Berulle  rapidly  acquired  the 
reputation  of  an  accomplished  divine;  excelling  as  a  contro- 
versialist, and  as  a  skilful  guide  in  the  confessional.  The  general 
estimate  of  his  powers  may  be  gathered  from  a  mot  of  Cardinal 
Du  Perron :  "  If  you  wish  to  convince  the  heretics,  bring  them 
to  me ;  if  you  desire  to  convert  them,  take  them  to  the  Bishop 
of  Geneva ;  but  if  the  object  is  both  to  convince  and  to  convert 
them,  you  must  go  to  the  Abbe  de  Berulle."  * 

The  undertaking  from  which  the  name  of  De  Berulle  has 
acquired  its  chief  distinction  is  the  foundation  of  the  French 
congregation  of  the  "  Oratory  of  Jesus."  It  has  been  before 
observed  that  the  state  of  the  secular  clergy  at  this  period  was 
one  of  lamentable  degeneracy.  "  In  the  rural  districts,"  writes 
a  contemporary  prelate,!  "  the  people  were  like  scattered  sheep, 
without  spiritual  pasture,  without  Sacraments,  without  instruc- 
tion, and  with  scarcely  any  external  aids  towards  their  salvation. 
Many  even  of  the  bishops  thought  of  nothing  beyond  the  luxu- 
rious enjoyment  of  their  revenues,  and  were  quite  negligent  of 
their  pastoral  duties.  From  these  irregularities  it  followed  that 
the  priesthood  sunk  into  such  general  discredit  and  contempt, 
that  for  persons  of  any  position  it  was  reckoned  a  degradation 
to  take  holy  orders,  except  for  the  sake  of  being  able  to  hold 
some  valuable  benefice.  The  village  cures  were  for  the  most 
part  like  those  shepherds  of  whom  the  prophet  speaks,  who  con- 
tented themselves  with  taking  the  wool  and  the  milk  of  the 
flock,  but  neglected  to  give  them  that  food  which  is  indispensable 
to  the  life  of  souls.  Thus  the  people  fell  into  such  a  state  of 
profound  ignorance  as  scarcely  to  know  whether  or  not  there  is 
a  God.  Of  the  mysteries  of  the  Trinity  and  the  Incarnation 
they  had  no  apprehension  whatever;  nor  were  they  at  all  better 
instructed  as  to  the  Holy  Sacraments,  and  the  dispositions  with 
which  they  ought  to  be  approached."  It  may  be  hoped,  how- 
ever, that  this  picture  is  somewhat  overcoloured.  At  all  events 
the  state  of  things  was  not  so  scandalous  in  the  capital  and  the 
great  towns. 

The  inefficiency  of  the  national  clergy  was  viewed  with  deep 

*  Tabaraud,  Hist,  du  Curd,  de  I  t  Abelly,  Bishop  'of  Gudcz,  in  Lis 
JicruUe,  torn.  i.  p.  33.  |  'Life  of  S.  Vincent  de  Paul.' 


A.D.  1611. 


CARDINAL  DE  BERULLE. 


251 


concern  by  those  admirable  men  who  were  labouring  for  the 
restoration  of  the  Church  of  France  to  something  like  its  ancient 
strength  and  power.  Francois  de  Sales,  Cesar  de  Bus,*  the 
Jesuit  Cotton,  Vincent  de  Paul,  Pierre  de  Berulle,  with  others, 
conferred  long  and  anxiously  together  as  to  the  means  to  be 
adopted  for  raising  the  tone  of  feeling  and  standard  of  duty 
among  their  brethren  in  the  ministry.  De  Berulle  was  the  first 
to  suggest  the  plan  of  an  association  of  priests  upon  the  pattern 
of  that  which  had  been  formed  in  Italy  under  the  direction  of 
St.  Philip  Neri — the  members  of  which  took  no  special  vows, 
and  were  not  bound  to  practise  the  conventual  life,  but  simply 
devoted  themselves  to  the  fulfilment  of  the  obligations  inherent 
in  the  sacerdotal  office,  according  to  their  true  extent  and 
meaning.  The  same  idea  had  been  already  conceived  by  Madame 
Acarie,  who  seems  to  have  had  an  instinctive  persuasion  that 
De  Berulle  was  designed  by  Heaven  to  be  the  instrument  of  its 
execution.!  "For  a  long  time  past,"  she  wrote  in  1606  to  her 
confessor  F.  Cotton,  "  I  have  been  urging  M.  de  Berulle  to 
attempt  this  enterprise,  but  as  yet  he  will  not  consent.  He  must 
do  it.  Help  me  to  persuade  him  of  this."  The  matter  was 
pressed  upon  De  Berulle  from  various  quarters,  but  his  charac- 
teristic modesty  led  him  to  withstand,  as  long  as  it  was  possible, 
the  call  to  initiate  such  an  arduous  undertaking.  He  strove  to 
prevail  upon  others  to  accept  the  charge,  addressing  himself 
especially  to  Frangois  de  Sales  and  to  Gallemant,  an  eminent 
doctor  of  the  Sorbonne ;  but  the  former  declined  it  on  the  score 
of  his  episcopal  duties,  the  latter  on  that  of  his  advanced  age. 
Thus  the  affair  stood  over  from  year  to  year ;  but  at  length,  on 
the  combined  instances  of  the  Chancellor  de  Silleri,  Cardinal  de 
Joyeuse,  Gondi,  Bishop  of  Paris,  and,  it  is  said,  of  the  Queen 
Regent  herself,  De  Berulle  signified  his  readiness  to  commence 
this  "  work  of  faith  and  labour  of  love  "  which  the  Church  so 
clearly  demanded  at  his  hands.  On  the  10th  of  November, 
1611,  he  took  up  his  abode,  in  company  with  four  other  eccle- 
siastics, at  the  hotel  du  Petit-Bourbon,  in  the  Faubourg  S. 
Jacques,  on  a  part  of  the  site  now  occupied  by  the  Val  de  Grace.J 


*  Founder  of  the  "  Frcrea  <le  la  doc- 
trine Chre'tiennc."  He  laboured  chiefly 
in  Provence  and  Languedoc,  and  died 
iu  1607. 


t  D'Avrigny,  Htfm.  Clironol.,  torn.  i. 
p.  163. 

J  The  Faubourg  S.  Jacquea  con- 
tained biicli  a  multitude  of  religion.- 


252  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  V. 

The  names  of  his  first  colleagues  were  Jean  Bence,  Jacques 
Gastaud,  both  doctors  of  the  Sorbonne ;  Paul  Metezeau,  one  of 
the  most  esteemed  preachers  of  the  day  ;  and  Francois  Bourgoing, 
cure  of  Clichy,  afterwards  General  of  the  Society.  The  letters 
patent  declared  the  Oratory  to  be  a  house  of  "  royal  foundation." 
In  October  of  the  following  year  the  Bishop  of  Paris  officially 
approved  the  statutes;  and  on  the  10th  of  May,  1613,  the  bull 
of  institution  was  forwarded  by  Pope  Paul  V.  * 

The  founders  of  the  Oratory  did  not  propose  to  create  a  new 
monastic  order;  the  object  was  to  promote  among  the  clergy 
a  spirit  of  combination  for  improvement  in  those  studies  which 
became  their  profession,  and  through  which  alone  they  could 
hope  to  glorify  God  and  minister  to  the  edification  of  His 
Church.t  The  Oratorians,  whether  in  Italy,  in  France,  in  the 
Low  Countries,  or  elsewhere,  were  united  by  no  bonds  save 
those  of  Christian  charity;  they  undertook  no  duties  beyond 
those  to  which  they  had  pledged  themselves  on  entering  the 
sacred  ministry.  In  consideration  of  the  peculiar  necessities  of 
the  Gallican  Church,  they  were  to  practise  the  utmost  simplicity 
of  living,  and  strict  self-denial  with  regard  to  worldly  comforts ; 
they  were  likewise  to  forego  all  thought  of  ecclesiastical  prefer- 
ment, and  to  labour  without  remuneration.  They  were  at 
liberty  to  quit  the  Society  whenever  they  pleased ;  and  while 
they  belonged  to  it,  they  were  subject,  like  the  rest  of  the 
clergy,  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  diocesan  bishops.  "  The  spirit 

houses  at  this  period,  that  it  acquired  j   ont  ete  contraires." 

the  name  of  the  "  Thebaide,"  in  allusion  t  They  cherished  a  special  devotion 

to  the  celebrated  retreat  of  the  Egyptian  j   to  the  person  of  the  incarnate  Saviour, 

coenobites  in  the  fourth  century.  the  mysteries  of  His  nature,  the  events 

*  The  following  notice  of  the  founda-  of  His  life,  and  His  mediatorial  work, 

tion  of  the   Oratory  appears    in   the  j   "  Speciali  religione  Jesum  Christum  et 

Mercure  Francois  for  1613,  p.  288  : —  Beatam  Virginem  colunt,  Illius  vitam 

"  Sous  le  nom  de  Pretres  de  1'Oratoire  et  mysteria  in  omnibus  suis  actionibus, 

s'est  e'tablie  au  Faubourg  S.  Jacques  meditationibus,  et  sermonibus  veneran- 

une  nouvelle  congregation.  Ce  sont  tous  tur  ut  suum  Patronum  et  totius  vitse  Ex- 

pre"tres  ayant  des  commodite's,  et  gens  emplar.  Propterea  Congregatio  Oratorii 

doctes  vivant  en  communaute  comme  !  Jesu    Christi    nuncupatur,   et    votivis 

religieux.     La  plus  grande  partie  du  \  precibus    quotidie  suam    erga    Jesum 

jour  ils  sont  en  prieres  et  meditations.  '   Christum  servitutem  profitentur,  et  in 

Us  portent  la  soutane  comme  les  pre-  j   Scripturarum  sauctarum  lectione  per- 

tres  Eomains  (apparently  this  was  not  petua  Jesum  Christum  maxime  scrutan- 

the  usual  dress  of  the  clergy  in  France  tur.     Sane  vero  ex  hoc  pietatis  intimo 

at  this  time)  ils  ont  aussi  un  long  man-  aff'cctu  erga  Christum  elucet  qusedam 

teau  et  le  collet  rabattu  et  non  hausse'  sublimis  divinarum  rerum  scientia,  quse 

comme  celui   des  Jesuites.     Plusieurs  tain  in  libris  piis  quam  in  sermonibus 

ont    loue    cette    congregation,   comme  manifestatur."  —  Gallia       Christiana, 

aussi  cst  elle  louable ;  et  d'autres  lui  torn.  vii.  p.  977. 


A.D.  1613. 


INSTITUTION  OF  THE  ORATORY. 


253 


of  this  congregation,"  says  Bossuet,  in  his  funeral  oration  for 
F.  Bourgomg,  "is  none  other  than  that  of  the  Church  herself; 
it  acknowledges  no  other  rules  than  her  sacred  canons,  no  other 
superiors  than  her  bishops,  no  other  vows  than  those  of  baptism 
and  the  priesthood.  With  them  a  holy  liberty  constitutes  a 
holy  engagement ;  here  we  find  obedience  without  dependence, 
government  without  command ;  all  authority  consists  in  gentle- 
ness, and  penitence  is  maintained  without  the  aid  of  fear. 
Here,  in  order  to  form  true  priests,  they  are  conducted  to  the 
source  of  all  truth ;  they  have  the  Inspired  Writings  constantly 
in  their  hands,  that  they  may  seek  unceasingly  the  interpretation 
of  them  by  study,  their  spirit  by  prayer,  their  depth  by  medita- 
tion, their  power  by  experience,  their  end  by  charity,  in  which 
grace  everything  is  summed  up — which  is  the  sole  essential 
treasure  of  Christianity."  * 

Tabaraud  mentions  f  that  certain  prelates  summoned  De 
Berulle  before  them  to  give  an  explanation  of  his  views  in  in- 
stituting the  Oratory.  "  Although,"  says  the  biographer,  "  he 
might  have  declined  their  jurisdiction,  the  pious  founder  replied 
modestly  that  he  had  only  acted  according  to  the  orders  of  his 
ecclesiastical  superior ;  and  when  they  proceeded  to  enquire 
what  were  the  statutes  of  his  Congregation,  he  contented  himself 
with  quoting  a  passage  from  St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Philippians  : 
"  Let  your  moderation  be  known  unto  all  men.  The  Lord  is  at 
hand.  Be  careful  for  nothing;  but  in  everything  by  prayer 
and  supplication,  with  thanksgiving,  let  your  requests  be  made 
known  unto  G-od."  "  This,"  said  De  Berulle,  "  is  my  rule/'  The 
bishops  were  so  much  struck  by  this  response,  that  they  forbore 
to  trouble  him  with  any  further  questions. 

The  congregation  of  the  Oratory  soon  gave  proof  of  being 
well  adapted  to  meet  one  of  the  most  pressing  exigencies  of  the 
time;  and  made  rapid  progress  in  numbers,  reputation,  and 


*  Thus,  too,  D'Avrigny,  M^moire 
Chronol,  torn.  i.  p.  163.  "  Quoiqu'ils 
aient  des  superieurs,  Us  n'en  dependent 
pas  que  pour  le  bon  ordre  et  la  police, 
chaque  particulier  ne  tenant  au  corps 
que  par  des  liens  qu'il  est  toujours 
maitre  de  rompre.  C'est  ce  qui  fit  dire 
un  jour  a  un  grand  magistral  dans  un 
plaidoyer,  que  1'Oratoire  est  un  corps 
ou  tout  le  monde  obeit,  et  personne  ne 


commande.  Si  cette  liberte  affaiblit 
d'un  cote  la  congregation,  elle  la 
soutient  de  1'autre,  eu  lui  procurant  des 
sujets  qui  sont  bien  aises  de  trouver 
un  asile  honorable  oil  la  vertu  pent  se 
soutenir  sans  courir  la  risque  d'une  de'- 
pendance  e'ternelle  fort  h,  charge  a  la 
nature." 

t  Histoire   de  B&rutte,    torn.   i.    p. 
161. 


254  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  V. 

influence.  In  1G16  it  became  necessary  to  move  into  a  larger 
building,  and  De  Berulle  purchased  from  the  Duchess  of  Guise, 
sister  of  Cardinal  de  Joyeuse,  the  Hotel  de  Bouchage,  near  the 
Louvre,  an  ancient  possession  of  that  family.  Here  the  Orato- 
rians  laboured  with  great  success,  particularly  among  persons 
of  rank  connected  with  the  Court,  many  of  whom  were  con- 
stant attendants  at  their  lectures,  services,  and  "  conferences 
spirituelles."  A  few  years  later  the  first  stone  of  a  new  church 
for  the  Society,  in  the  same  quartier,  was  laid  with  much  pomp 
by  the  Due  de  Montbazon,  in  the  name  and  on  behalf  of 
Louis  XIII.  It  was  declared  one  of  the  chapels  royal,  and  its 
clergy  were  entitled  "  chaplains  of  the  Louvre."  This  became 
one  of  the  most  celebrated  churches  of  the  capital.  It  contained 
a  splendid  monument  to  Cardinal  de  Berulle,  one  of  the  finest 
works  of  Franpois  Auguier,  which  was  unhappily  demolished  at 
the  Revolution.  After  suffering  shameful  desecration,  the  church 
was  appropriated  to  the  Protestants  of  the  Genevese  Confession} 
by  whom  it  is  still  occupied.  Its  graceful  chevet,  or  apse,  forms 
a  well-known  ornament  of  the  Rue  St.  Honore. 

In  1618  Cardinal  de  Gondi,  Bishop  of  Paris,  obtained  letters 
patent  for  converting  the  suppressed  Abbey  of  S.  Magloire,  in 
the  Faubourg  S.  Jacques,  into  a  seminary  for  the  education  of 
priests  in  his  diocese,  and  placed  it  under  the  direction  of  the 
Fathers  of  the  Oratory.  This  institution,  the  earliest  founded 
for  that  purpose  in  Paris,  proved  most  valuable  and  successful. 
Here  laboured  the  accomplished  Louis  Thomassin,  who  has 
enriched  the  Church  with  his  masterly  dissertations  on  eccle- 
siastical discipline,  on  positive  theology,  on  the  doctrine  of  grace, 
and  on  the  history  of  the  Councils.*  Here,  too,  Charles  Le 
Cointe  compiled  his  ponderous  'Annales  Ecclesiastici  Franco- 
rum,'  in  eight  volumes  folio.  Thomassin  was  succeeded  in  his 
professorship  at  St.  Magloire  by  the  no  less  celebrated  Jacques- 
Joseph  Duguet,  whose  conferences  always  attracted  a  crowded 
and  enthusiastic  auditory. 


*  This  latter  work  of  Thomassin's  pressus    ille    fuit  ;    nonnullis    autem 

was  suppressed,  on  account  of  some  plagulis    mutatis,   permissum   est    ut 

few  passages  which  were  not  sufficiently  libere  in  lucem  exiret.     QUSB  et  caussa 

Galilean  in  tone  as  to  the  authority  of  est,  cur  unus  tantum  operia  hujus  tomus 

the  Pope.    "  Quum  in  libro  hoc  de  auc-  in    eruditorum    manibus  versetur." — 
toritate  Pontificis  tradita  essent.  quse   ,   Walch,  Bibliothec.  Theol.,  torn.  iii.  p. 

Ecclesiae    displicebant    Gallicse,    sup-  873. 


A.D.  1G13.  LABOURS  OF  THE  ORATORIANS.  255 

The  Oratorians  afterwards  acquired  a  third  establishment  in 
Paris,  situated  in  the  Faubourg  St.  Michel,  which  they  styled 
"  L'institution."  It  was  devoted  to  the  elementary  instruction 
of  young  men  who  presented  themselves  for  admission  to  the 
Congregation. 

In  the  three  great  departments  of  theological  literature, 
preaching,  and  clerical  education,  the  priests  of  the  Oratory 
produced  results  to  which  the  Gallican  Church  is  deeply  indebted, 
and  their  names  will  ever  be  inscribed  on  some  of  the  brightest 
pages  of  its  annals.  A  considerable  space  would  be  required  to 
give  even  a  catalogue  of  these  worthies.  It  was  Jean  Frangois 
Senault*  who  emancipated  the  Church  from  that  turgid,  pe- 
dantic, tasteless  style  of  pulpit  eloquence,  which  characterized 
the  age  of  the  Eenaissance.  Senault's  discourses  were  refined, 
intellectual,  classical ;  and  during  the  forty  years  in  which  he 
was  engaged  as  a  preacher  in  Paris  and  the  provinces,  a  com- 
plete transformation  took  place  among  the  clergy  with  regard 
to  this  branch  of  their  ministrations.  Many  Oratorians  formed 
themselves  upon  the  model  of  Senault,  who  are  more  generally 
known  to  fame  than  their  master ;  and  by  some  of  these  the  art 
of  preaching  was  carried  to  the  highest  pitch  of  excellence. 
Two  of  his  most  renowned  disciples  may  be  mentioned  here  in 
passing — Jules  Mascaron,  Bishop  of  Agen,  and  Jean  Baptiste 
Massillon,  Bishop  of  Clermont. 

But  it  was  in  the  field  of  education — especially  of  education 
for  the  ministry  of  the  Church — that  the  genius  of  the  Oratory 
displayed  its  most  brilliant  colours.  De  Berulle  possessed  in  a 
singular  degree  the  faculty  of  attaching  the  minds  of  the  young. 
This  spirit  was  emulated  by  his  fellow  labourers,  and  became 
the  leading  feature  of  the  Congregation.  Their  colleges  and 
seminaries  were  filled  with  students,  a  large  proportion  of  whom 
belonged  to  the  upper  orders.  In  1612  Cardinal  de  Joyeuse, 
Archbishop  of  Kouen,  sent  thirty  candidates  for  the  ministry  to 
Paris  to  be  trained  by  De  Berulle  and  his  colleagues ;  and  sub- 
sequently he  opened  a  diocesan  seminary  at  Kouen,  which  he 
entrusted  to  their  management.  They  were  next  summoned 
for  a  similar  purpose  to  Langres,  afterwards  to  Lyons  by  Cardinal 
de  Marquemont,  and  in  like  manner  to  several  other  cathedral 


Senault  was  elected  General  of  the  Oratory  in  1661,  and  died  in  1672. 


256  THE  GALL1CAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  V. 

cities.  The  popularity  of  this  great  work  excited  ere  long  the 
jealousy  of  the  Jesuits,  who  ever  since  their  re-establishment  in 
France  had  aimed  at  monopolizing  the  superior  education  of  the 
country.  During  the  early  part  of  his  career  De  Berulle  had 
enjoyed  the  special  confidence  of  the  fathers  of  that  Order, 
under  whom  he  studied  for  some  years  in  his  youth.  He  had 
had  the  courage  to  befriend  them  in  their  banishment — had 
exerted  himself  personally,  and  through  the  interest  of  in- 
fluential relatives,  to  procure  their  recall — and  in  recognition 
of  these  services  had  received  letters  of  affiliation  from  the 
General  Acquaviva.*  But  no  sooner  did  he  start  the  plan 
of  a  Society  which  was  likely  to  compete  for  the  occupation  of 
ground  which  they  considered  exclusively  their  own,  than  the 
Jesuits  became  his  bitter  opponents.  They  strained  every  nerve 
to  thwart  his  undertaking,  descending  for  this  purpose  to  the 
meanest  practices — to  unblushing  detraction  and  vulgar  libels. 
The  strife  became  complicated  by  the  subsequent  course  of 
events.  The  Oratory  and  the  Company  of  Jesus  espoused 
opposite  sides  of  the  questions  in  dispute  in  the  Jansenistic 
controversy;  and  their  dissensions  inflicted  infinite  injury  on 
their  common  cause  and  on  their  mother  Church. 


Tabaraud,  Hist,  de  Card,  de  Bfrulk,  torn.  i.  p.  21. 


A.D.  1610.  ASSASSINATION  OF  HENRY  IV.  257 


CHAPTER    VI. 

IN  order  to  preserve  a  connected  view  of  the  many  memorable 
efforts  of  ecclesiastical  reform  which  crowd  the  early  years  of 
the  century,  we  have  purposely  abstained  from  noticing  the 
course  of  political  transactions  during  this  period.  It  is  time, 
however,  to  turn  our  attention  for  a  while  to  the  events  of 
secular  history,  which  will  be  found  closely  interwoven  with  the 
affairs  and  interests  of  the  Church  of  France. 

Henry  IV.,  on  the  eve  of  quitting  Paris  on  a  military 
expedition,  the  results  of  which  might  have  wrought  mo- 
mentous changes  in  the  fortunes  of  Europe,  received  his  death- 
blow from  the  hand  of  a  wretched  fanatic,  Franyois  Eavaiilac, 
on  the  14th  of  May,  1610.  Amid  the  profound  consternation 
which  this  sudden  calamity  produced  among  all  classes  of  his 
people,  the  more  religiously-minded  of  the  monarch's  friends 
consoled  themselves  by  recalling  the  proofs  which  he  had  given, 
during  his  later  years,  of  concern  for  his  spiritual  welfare; 
though  it  must  be  confessed  that,  when  placed  in  juxtaposition 
with  the  ordinary  tenor  of  his  life,  these  indications  were  not 
altogether  satisfactory. 

We  learn  from  the  testimony  of  his  confessor,  Father  Cotton, 
that  Henry  had  his  moments  of  fervent  and  intense  devotion. 
He  was  often  bathed  in  tears  at  the  feet  of  his  spiritual  adviser ; 
and  "  that  great  soul,  which  knew  no  fear,  appeared  so  deeply 
penetrated  by  the  thought  and  presence  of  God,  that  no  room 
was  left  to  doubt  the  sincerity  of  his  penitence.  Sometimes  he 
would  pass  whole  days  absorbed  in  religious  exercises,  attending 
to  nothing  and  speaking  of  nothing  but  God  and  the  means  of 
salvation."  Never  were  these  sentiments  of  piety  and  anxiety 
for  his  soul's  welfare  more  strongly  manifested  than  during  the 
last  year  of  his  life.  Even  in  the  midst  of  festivities  and 
rejoicings  he  was  continually  occupied  with  the  affairs  of 
religion.  Being  at  St.  Denis  on  the  occasion  of  the  queen's 
coronation, — the  day  before  his  death, — he  caused  Cotton  to 

VOL.  i.  s 


258  THE  GALLIC  AN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VI. 

accompany  him  into  a  glazed  gallery,  where  he  could  witness 
the  ceremony  without  being  himself  seen.  Here,  looking  down 
upon  the  thronging  crowds  who  filled  the  choir  and  aisles  of  the 
church,  he  took  the  priest  aside,  and  pointing  to  the  vast 
multitude  below,  "You  do  not  know,"  said  he,  "what  I  was 
thinking  of  just  now,  as  I  surveyed  this  scene?  I  was  thinking 
of  the  last  judgment,  and  of  the  account  which  every  one  of  us 
must  then  render  to  God."*  St.  Francois  de  Sales,  between 
whom  and  Henry  there  existed  a  warm  personal  regard,  ex- 
pressed himself  in  the  following  terms  in  a  letter  to  his  friend 
Des' Hayes :— (May  27th,  1610.)— "The  happiest  event  in  the 
life  of  this  great  sovereign  was  that  by  which,  in  making 
himself  a  child  of  the  Church,  he  made  himself  the  father  ot' 
France  ;  in  becoming  a  sheep  of  the  good  Shepherd,  he  became 
the  shepherd  of  a  densely-peopled  kingdom  ;  and,  in  converting 
his  own  soul  to  God,  he  converted  the  hearts  of  all  good 
Catholics  to  himself.  It  is  this  blessed  circumstance  that  makes 
me  hope  that  the  tender  and  merciful  Providence"  of  our 
Heavenly  Father  instilled  into  that  royal  heart,  even  at  the 
last  moment  of  life,  the  contrition  which  is  necessary  to  a  happy 
death.  And,  therefore,  I  implore  that  infinite  Goodness  to 
show  mercy  to  one  who  showed  such  clemency  to  his  fellow  men, 
to  pardon  one  who  extended  pardon  to  so  many  enemies,  and  to 
receive  into  glory  this  reconciled  soul,  who  received  so  many 
into  favour  upon  their  reconciliation  with  himself."  t 

Taking  advantage  of  the  outburst  of  national  indignation  that 
followed  the  king's  murder,  the  Parliament  of  Paris  lost  no  time 
in  striking  a  blow  against  the  Jesuits,  who  were  popularly 
presumed  to  be  implicated  in  the  crime.  On  the  very  day  of 
Kavaillac's  execution,  June  4,  the  Faculty  of  Theology  assem- 
bled at  the  Sorbonne  by  order  of  the  Parliament,  for  the 
purpose  of  confirming  and  renewing  a  decree  passed  by  that 
body,  in  the  year  1413,  against  persons  who  maintained  that  it 
was  lawful  and  right,  under  certain  circumstances,  for  subjects 
to  put  a  tyrant  to  death.  This  decree  was  occasioned  by  the 
assassination  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  brother  of  Charles  YL, 
and  the  extraordinary  justification  of  that  bloody  deed  by  Jean 
Petit,  a  Franciscan  monk  and  doctor  of  the  Sorbonne,  in  his 

*  Vie  du  Pere  Cot&n,  par  le  P.  Orleans,  p.  142,  et  seqq. 
t  CRumes  de  S.  Francois  de  Sales,  torn.  ix.  p.  197. 


A.R.  1010. 


OUTCRY  AGAINST  THE  JESUITS. 


public  defence  of  the  murderer,  the  Duke  of  Burgundy.  The 
Faculty  unanimously  re-affirmed  the  decree  in  question ;  and 
pronounced  it  "  seditious,  impious,  and  heretical,  to  lay  hands 
upon  the  sacred  persons  of  kings  and  princes,  upon  any  pretext 
whatsoever ;"  and  all  doctors  and  bachelors  of  divinity  were 
enjoined  to  bind  themselves  by  a  solemn  oath  to  uphold  and 
teach  this  doctrine. 

Four  days  later  the  Parliament  issued  an  arret  condemning  a 
notorious  publication  of  the  Spanish  Jesuit  Mariana,  entitled 
'De  Rege  et  Regis  Institutione.'  This  was  sentenced  to  be 
burnt  by  the  common  hangman,  as  containing  "  many  execrable 
blasphemies  against  the  late  King  Henry  IV.,  and  against  the 
persons  and  states  of  kings  and  sovereign  princes."*  It  was 
true  that  Mariana  had  maintained,  with  certain  qualifications, 
the  lawfulness  of  tyrannicide ;  t  and  it  was  pretended  that 
Ravaillac  had  imbibed  from  this  source  the  detestable  maxims 
which  had  led  him  to  lift  his  murderous  hand  against  "  the  best 
of  kings."  The  outcry  against  the  Jesuits  becoming  louder  and 
more  furious,  Father  Cotton  deemed  it  necessary  to  interfere  on 
behalf  of  his  vilified  order ;  he  addressed  a  letter  to  the  Queen 
Regent,  showing  that  they  had  repudiated  Mariana's  doctrine 
several  years  previously,  and  declaring  that  they  accepted  and 
approved  ex  animo  the  recent  decree  of  the  Sorbonne.  The 
Bishop  of  Paris  now  came  forward,  and  in  the  most  public 
manner  testified  to  the  innocence  of  the  Jesuits  with  respect  to 
the  charge  of  complicity  in  the  death  of  the  king ;  \  and,  as  a 
further  measure  of  self-exculpation,  the  General  Aquaviva 
prohibited  all  members  of  the  Order,  under  the  heaviest 
penalties,  from  teaching  or  writing  aught  that  might  seem 


*  Bayle,  in  his  Dictionary  (under 
the  word  Mai  iana)  says,  "  II  n'y  a 
rien  de  plus  seditieux,  ni  de  plus 
capable  d'exposer  les  trones  a  de  fre- 
quentes  revolutions,  et  la  vie  meine 
des  princes  au  couteau  des  assassins, 
que  ce  livre  de  Mariana."  In  one 
passage  Mariana  justifies  in  express 
terms  the  crime  of  Jacques  Clement 
on  the  ground  that  he  had  ascertained 
from  several  theologians,  whom  he  had 
consulted,  that  a  tyrant  may  lawfully 
be  put  to  death. 

t  "Hoc  omne  genus  pestiferum  et 
oxitiale  ex  hominum  communitate 


exterminare  gloriosum  est.  Enim- 
vero  membra  quaedam  secantur,  si 
putrida  sunt,  ne  reliquum  corpus  in- 
ficiant.  Sic  ista,  in  hominis  specie, 
bebtise  immanitas  a  Eepublica  tan- 
quam  a  corpore  amoveri  debet,  ferro- 
que  exscindi.  Timeat  videlicet  necesse 
est,  qui  terret,  neque  major  sit  tenor 
incussus  quam  motus  susceptus." 
Mariana,  De  Rege,  &c.,  Lib.  i.  p.  64. 

J  See  his  "  letlre  tebtimoniale," 
quoted  by  M.  Crctineau-Joly,  Histoire 
de  la  Cvmpagnie  de  Je'sits.  vol.  iii,  p. 
157. 

s  2 


260  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VI. 

to  sanction  or  excuse,  in  the  remotest  degree,  the  atrocious 
crime  of  parricide.*  The  arret  of  the  Parliament  contained  a 
clause  ordering  the  decree  of  the  Sorbonne  against  tyrannicide 
to  be  read  on  the  same  day  in  every  year  at  a  public  assembly 
of  the  Faculty ;  and  likewise  to  be  published  in  all  the  parisli 
churches  of  the  capital  during  divine  service.  The  Bishop 
of  Paris  complained  of  this  latter  injunction  to  the  Council  of 
State,  as  an  interference  with  his  diocesan  jurisdiction ;  and  it 
was  in  consequence  suppressed. 

The  Parliament,  however,  though  silenced  for  the  moment, 
was  by  no  means  satisfied  ;  nor  did  the  popular  ferment  against 
the  Jesuits  at  all  subside.  In  November  of  the  same  year 
the  Society  fell  once  more  under  the  lash  of  their  enemies, 
in  consequence  of  a  treatise  recently  put  forth  by  Cardinal 
Bellarmine,  '  De  potestate  Summi  Pontificis  in  temporal ibus,'  in 
which  the  Ultramontane  theory  was  maintained  as  to  the 
superiority  of  the  Pope  over  all  secular  potentates.  This  work 
of  Bellarmine's  was  a  reply  to  one  by  William  Barclay,  entitled, 
*  De  potestate  Papa3,  et  quatenus  in  Reges  et  Principes 
seculares  jus  et  iinperium  habeat.'  The  controversy  arose 
originally  out  of  the  measures  taken  by  James  I.  and  the 
English  Parliament,  after  the  Gunpowder  Plot,  with  a  view  to 
prevent  future  attempts  on  the  part  of  Roman  Catholics  against 
the  king's  crown  and  person.  In  the  "Oath  of  Allegiance," 
which  was  then  imposed  upon  all  Catholics  in  England,  they 
were  called  upon  to  disavow,  as  "impious,  heretical,  and 
damnable,"  the  position  that  "princes  excommunicated  or 
deprived  by  the  Pope  may  be  deposed  or  murdered  by  their 
subjects,  or  by  any  other  whatsoever."  It  thereupon  became  a 
question,  whether  an  oath  thus  expressed  could  be  taken  by 
members  of  the  Church  of  Rome  with  a  safe  conscience.  Upon 
this  point  there  was  a  division  of  opinion ;  the  secular  clergy, 
headed  by  their  Archpriest  Blackwell,  were  for  the  most  part 
willing  to  accept  the  oath ;  the  Jesuits,  on  the  other  hand,  were 
decidedly  opposed  to  it.  Reference  having  been  made  to 
Rome,  Pope  Paul  V.  addressed  a  brief  to  Blackwell  con- 
demning the  oath  as  unlawful,  since  it  contained  many  things 


*  D'Avrigny,  Mem.  Chronohg.,  vol.  i.  p.  114.    Le  Vassor,  Histotre  de  Louis 
XIII.,  Liv.  i.  pp.  47,  48. 


A.D.  1607.       JAMES  I.  AND  CARDINAL  BELLARMINE. 


contrary  to  faith  and  salvation.*  In  the  following  year,  1607, 
the  Pope  found  it  necessary  to  issue  a  second  brief  to  the  same 
purpose,  addressed  to  the  whole  body  of  English  Eoman 
Catholics  ;t  and  this  was  accompanied  by  an  expostulatory 
letter  from  Cardinal  Bellarmine  to  the  Archpriest  Blackwell,  in 
which  the  ultramontane  principles  concerning  the  Papal  autho- 
rity were  unequivocally  set  forth.  Upon  this  King  James,  who 
was  notoriously  vain  of  his  talents  as  an  author,  published  an 
'Apology  for  the  Oath  of  Allegiance;'  it  was  at  first  anony- 
mous, but  the  second  edition  was  authenticated  by  his  name, 
and  prefaced  by  a  "  premonition  to  all  Christian  princes."  His 
Majesty's  manifesto  was  answered  by  Cardinal  Bellarmine,  the 
most  renowned  controversial  champion  of  the  Roman  curia ; 
.who,  following  the  example  of  his  royal  antagonist,  appeared  at 
first  under  the  nom  de  plume  of  Matthieu  Tortus,  and 
subsequently  in  a  treatise,  '  De  Romano  Pontifice,'  to  which  he 
appended  his  name.J  \Villiam  Barclay  now  entered  the  arena, 
and  attacked  Bellarmine;  whereupon  the  Cardinal  rejoined  by  the 
publication  above-mentioned,  *  De  potestate  Summi  Pontificis 
in  rebus  temporalibus.'  This  met  with  an  indignant  and 
ignominious  condemnation  from  the  French  Parliament.  Being 
denounced  by  the  Avocat-General  Servin,  it  was  suppressed  by 
a  decree  which  made  it  unlawful  to  print,  sell,  or  possess  the 
book  within  the  French  dominions.  The  Pope's  nuncio 
remonstrated  vehemently  against  this  sentence,  and  even 
threatened  to  leave  France.  The  Bishop  of  Paris,  and  other 
prelates,  supported  him;  and  the  Council  of  State  was  at 
length  prevailed  upon  to  prohibit  all  proceedings  in  the 
matter,  until  the  royal  pleasure  should  be  further  signified. 
The  Parliamentary  arret  consequently  fell  to  the  ground.  This 
resolution  of  the  Regent  and  her  council  is  said  to  have  been 
due  to  the  influence  of  Cardinal  du  Perron,  who  represented 
that  it  was  inexpedient  at  the  commencement  of  a  new  reign, 


*  "  Cum  multa  contineat  quse  fidei 
et  saluti  aperte  adversentur." 

t  It  appears  that  the  party  favour- 
able to  the  adoption  of  the  oath  had 
given  out  that  the  former  brief  was 
not  genuine,  or  that  at  all  events  it 
was  only  to  be  regarded  as  containing 


the  advice  of  the  Pope,  and   not  as 
conveying  any  command. 

J  This  production  of  Bellannine's 
was  placed  upon  the  Index  by  Pope 
Sixtus  V.,  as  not  carrying  the  Papal 
pretensions  to  a  sufficient  leugtii  of 
extravagance. 


2(52  THE  GALLICAN  CHQRCH.  CHAP.  VI. 

and  during  a  minority,  to  do  anything  openly  offensive  to  the 
Court  of  Borne. 

The'great  problems  involved  in  the  mutual  relations  of  the 
spiritual  and  the  temporal  power  had  now,  after  three  centuries 
of  conflict,  advanced  many  stages  towards  a  practical  solution. 
The  Church  had  relinquished,  in  great  measure,  her  ancient 
independence  in  one  of  its  most  important  particulars,  namely 
the  immunity  of  her  ministers  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
secular  tribunals.  The  royal  courts  reigned  supreme  in  causes 
which  once  belonged  to  the  unquestioned  cognizance  of  the 
ecclesiastical  judge.  The  Crown  had  acquired  the  vast  privilege 
of  nominating  directly  the  bishops  and  other  chief  dignitaries 
throughout  the  realm.  All  official  acts  proceeding  from  the 
Roman  curia  required  to  be  "  verified  "  by  the  Parliament,  and 
sanctioned  by  the  Council  of  State,  before  they  could  be  legally 
put  in  execution.  No  bull  or  rescript  could  be  published,  no 
canons  of  a  Council  received  as  binding,  no  legate  admitted  to 
discharge  his  mission  as  the  Pope's  representative,  without 
undergoing  this  test  of  conformity  with  the  maxims  of  the 
civil  constitution.  Added  to  which,  all  the  proceedings  of 
ecclesiastical  authorities  were  kept  in  strict  control  by  the 
oppressive  expedient  of  the  "appel  comme  d'abus."  Yet,  in 
point  of  theoretical  pretension,  the  Papacy  and  its  defenders 
occupied  nearly  the  same  ground  at  the  beginning  of  the  17th 
century  as  in  the  days  of  Innocent  III.  and  Boniface  VIII.  It 
was  not  found  easier  in  modern  than  it  had  been  in  medieval 
times  to  distinguish  with  scientific  precision  the  exact  province 
of  the  Crown  from  that  of  the  Church.  Exaggeration  and 
confusion  prevailed  on  both  sides  of  the  controversy.  The  re- 
action from  such  rash  displays  of  Pontifical  authority  as  the 
excommunications  of  the  Venetians  by  Sixtus  IV.,  of  Elizabeth 
of  England  by  Pius  V.,  of  Henry  of  Navarre  by  Sixtus  V.,  and 
others,  led  men  to  deny  that  Church  censures  have  any  force  or 
validity  at  all,  and  gave  rise  to  the  system  called  Erastianism. 
This  was  partially  embraced  by  the  Anglican  Hooker,*  and  was 
more  fully  developed  by  Grotius  in  his  treatise  '  De  imperio 
summaruin  Potestatum  circa  sacra.'  Grotius  attributes  to  the 


*  See  '•  Ecclesiastical  Polity,'  Book  viii. 


A.D.  1010.       RELATIONS  BETWEEN  CHURCH  AND  STATE.        263 

civil  magistrate  almost  every  ecclesiastical  prerogative  except  the 
actual  functions  of  preaching  and  administering  the  Sacraments- 
He  denies  the  legislative  supremacy  of  the  Church  in  matters 
of  faith  ;  subjecting  its  decrees  to  the  revision  of  the  sovereign 
in  the  last  resort.  Thus  to  reduce  one  of  the  two  Powers  into 
absolute  dependence  on  the  other  is  virtually  to  suppress  it 
altogether.  But  the  equilibrium  between  them  was  no  less 
endangered  by  writers  of  the  opposite  school,  such  as  Suarez, 
Petau,  Becan,  Bellarmine,  when  they  assigned  to  the  Church  a 
real  (though  indirect)  control  over  the  sovereign  in  his  temporal 
administration,  in  virtue  of  her  office  as  the  universal  teacher 
of  faith  and  morals.  The  principle  of  independence  is  thus  in 
like  manner  subverted,  and  the  Spiritual  Element  becomes  in 
effect  supreme ;  for  the  phrase  indirect  power  is  a  mere  verbal 
distinction  without  real  difference. 

Bellarmine's  reasoning  upon  the  subject  corresponds  with 
that  of  the  more  moderate  section  of  mediaeval  theologians ; 
whose  theory  has  been  examined  in  an  earlier  part  of  this  work.* 
The  ecclesiastical  and  the  temporal  power  have  distinct 
jurisdictions ;  the  latter,  however,  is  subordinate  to  the  former. 
Hence  it  follows  that  the  sovereign  Pontiff  is  superior  to  kings 
and  princes  in  things  temporal  by  reason  of  the  relation  in 
which  these  stand  to  things  spiritual.  The  authority  of  the 
Vicar  of  Christ  extends  universally  over  all  the  kingdoms  of  this 
world,  which  depend  upon  him  as  the  centre  of  unity ;  and 
although  God  has  not  committed  to  him  any  direct,  positive,  or 
absolute  temporal  dominion,  yet  it  is  evident  that,  in  case  of 
necessity,  he  may  administer  and  dispose  of  the  temporal  for 
the  benefit  of  the  spiritual.  Thus  he  may  hinder  secular 
potentates  from  abusing  their  power  to  the  injury  of  the 
Church,  from  propagating  heresy  and  schism,  and  thereby 
endangering  their  own  souls  and  those  of  their  subjects  ;  and  if 
they  prove  refractory,  he  has  the  further  power  of  excommuni- 
cating them,  absolving  their  subjects  from  their  oath  of  fidelity, 
and  depriving  them  of  their  dominions.  At  the  same  time 
Bellarmine  observes  that  under  any  and  all  circumstances  the 
murder  of  a  prince  is  equally  contrary  to  the  law  of  God  and  of 
the  Church ;  and  that,  in  point  of  fact,  it  is  a  thing  utterly 


See  Introduction,  pp.  53,  54. 


264 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CUAP.  VI. 


unheard  of  since  the  origin  of  Christianity,  that  any  Pope 
should  have  commanded  or  approved  the  murder  of  a  sovereign, 
even  were  lie  a  heretic,  an  idolater,  or  a  persecutor.*  These 
principles  the  Cardinal  illustrates  by  citing  the  names  of  many 
canonists  who  in  times  past  had  maintained  the  same  opinions ; 
he  moreover  specifies  instances  in  which  princes  had  actually 
been  deposed  by  Popes,  and  the  decisions  of  Councils  by  which 
such  depositions  had  been  authorized.  Among  others  he  refers 
to  the  case  of  Childeric,  the  last  of  the  Merovingian  kings,  who, 
he  asserts,  was  deprived  of  his  dominions  by  the  authority  of 
Pope  Zacharias ;  Pepin  being  by  the  same  authority  elevated  to 
the  vacant  throne. 

The  discussion  was  continued  by  John  Barclay,  the  son  of 
William,  who,  both  in  his  own  name  and  in  that  of  his  father, 
lately  deceased,  combated  with  much  vigour  and  talent  the 
statements  of  Bellarmine,  as  regards  both  principle  and  fact.f 
Temporal  sovereigns,  he  says,  are  indeed  subject  to  the  Pope 
and  to  the  authority  of  the  Church,  but  it  is  in  their  quality  of 
Christians  and  not  as  kings.  The  Pope's  authority  over  them 
is  essentially  and  simply  spiritual ;  and  if  he  visits  them  with 
penalties,  these  can  only  be  such  as  may  be  inflicted  by  a 
spiritual  ruler,  namely,  penalties  exclusively  spiritual,  not 
temporal.  The  two  powers  are  equal  and  independent,  each  in 
its  own  appointed  sphere  ;  they  have  different  ends  in  view,  and 
different  means  and  weapons  whereby  to  compass  them.  With 
reference  to  Childeric  and  Pepin,  Barclay  contends  that  the 
events  in  question  were  not  brought  about  by  the  authority  of 


*  It  was  unfortunate,  however,  as 
Le  Vassor  remarks  (Hist,  de  Louis 
XIII.,  Liv.  i.  p.  93),  that  only  so  late 
as  the  year  preceding  [November  9, 
1609]  the  Inquisition  at  Rome  should 
have  condemned  the  arret  of  the 
French  Parliament  against  the  assassin 
Jean  Chatel. 

t  The  title  of  John  Barclay's  work 
is  Publicss  pro  regibus,  et  private  pro 
Gul.  Bardaio  parente,  Vindicise.  Paris, 
1612.  William  Barclay,  the  father, 
was  born  in  Aberdeenshire  in  1546. 
He  emigrated  early  in  life  to  France, 
and  studied  civil  law  under  the  cele- 
brated Cujacius.  In  his  work  De 
ret/no  et  regali  potestale,  he  strenuously 
defended  the  independent  rights,  and 


even  the  despotic  power  of  kings. 
James  I.,  delighted  with  this  per- 
formance, endeavoured  to  persuade 
him  to  settle  in  England,  but  in  vain. 
He  died  at  Angers,  where  he  held  the 
professorship  of  civil  law.  The  son, 
John  Barclay,  was  born  at  Pont-a- 
Mousson  in  Lorraine,  and  was  one  of 
the  most  talented  men  and  elegant 
scholars  of  his  day.  The  Jesuits 
laboured  to  entice  him  into  their 
Society,  but  this  was  prevented  by  his 
father.  John  Barclay  was  the  author 
of  a  popular  romance,  entitled  Ar- 
genis,  which  describes  allegorical  ly 
the  political  state  of  Europe  in  his 
time.  Ho  died  at  Rome  in  1621. 


A.D.  1610.  PREDOMINANCE  OF  THE  JESUITS.  265 

the  Pope,  but  merely  under  his  counsel  and  with  his  approval, 
since  it  is  clear  that  Pepin  was  already,  and  had  been  for  years, 
possessed  of  the  reality  of  regal  power,  when  he  applied  to 
Zacharias  to  acknowledge  him  as  king. 

To  this  treatise  of  John  Barclay's  Cardinal  Bellarmine  did 
not  think  proper  to  make  any  response ;  and  the  controversy 
was  thus  permitted  to  drop  for  a  time.* 

With  an  Italian  princess  at  the  head  of  the  government, 
Italian  favourites  exercising  the  chief  influence  on  public  affairs, 
and  Jesuit  priests  occupying  the  highest  posts  of  honour  and 
confidence,  the  tendency  of  religious  feeling  at  the  French 
Court,  during  the  minority  of  Louis  XIII.,  was  unmistakeably 
Roman  and  Ultramontane.  The  Jesuits,  finding  themselves 
released  from  the  vigilant  control  of  the  great  Henry,  and 
secure  of  the  sympathies  of  the  Regent  and  her  advisers,  pushed 
their  operations  with  the  utmost  energy  in  all  directions,  and 
aimed  at  nothing  short  of  complete  ascendency  in  Church  and 
State.  They  systematically  evaded  the  restrictions  imposed  on 
them  by  the  terms  of  their  re-establishment  in  France ;  among 
other  things  they  obtained  from  the  Queen  Regent,  through  the 
intercession  of  Father  Cotton,  permission  to  give  public  instruc- 
tion in  the  College  de  Clermout,  their  head-quarters  at  Paris. 
The  encroachment  roused  the  well-founded  jealousy  with  which, 
ever  since  its  introduction  into  France,  the  Order  had  been 
regarded  by  the  Parliament  and  the  University  of  Paris.  The 
verification  of  the  letters  patent  was  opposed  by  the  Rector  of 
the  University  ;  and  the  Parliament  named  the  18th  of  Novem- 
ber, 1610,  for  the  hearing  of  the  cause.  When  that  day  arrived, 
however,  the  trial  was  prevented  by  the  arbitary  intervention  of 
the  Regent,  who  forbade  the  pleadings — an  injunction  which 
the  magistrates  dared  not  disobey.  The  cause  was  accordingly 
adjourned  for  a  year. 

During  this  interval,  a  remarkable  conflict  occurred  between 
the  Ultramontane  faction  and  the  defenders  of  the  ancient 
principles  distinctive  of  the  Gallican  Church,  the  details  of 
which  are  interesting  in  several  points  of  view. 

Edmond  Richer,  Syndic  of  the  Faculty  of  Theology  at  Paris, 


*  See    Ellies-Dupin,  Histoire   Ecclesiastique  du  XVH.  Sfecle,   torn,   i.,   ann. 
1610. 


266 


THE  GALLTCAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  VI. 


was  one  of  the  most  deeply-learned  scholars,  as  well  as  one  of  the 
most  estimable  men,  of  the  time.  He  was  born  in  1560,  at  the 
small  town  of  Chaource,  in  the  diocese  of  Langres.  His  parents 
were  too  poor  to  afford  him  any  advantages  of  education,  and 
he  quitted  them  at  an  early  age  for  Paris,  where  he  obtained 
admittance  as  a  pupil  of  the  University,  in  return  for  certain 
services  which  he  rendered  at  one  of  the  colleges.  His  talents 
and  unremitting  application  carried  him  rapidly  through  all  the 
lower  grades  of  the  academical  career,  and  in  his  thirtieth  year 
he  was  received  a  Doctor  of  the  Sorbonne.  Like  most  young 
students  in  those  days,  Richer  embraced  the  cause  of  the 
League,  and  advocated,  in  their  fullest  extent,  the  maxims, 
political  and  religious,  by  which  his  party  laboured  to  prevent 
the  accession  of  Henry  IV.  to  the  throne.  He  even  went  so  far 
as  to  justify,  in  a  public  thesis,  the  atrocious  crime  of  the 
regicide  Jacques  Clement.  Upon  the  restoration  of  peace,  the 
young  divine  betook  himself  to  a  candid  study  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture, the  fathers  of  the  Church,  and  ecclesiastical  history ;  and 
eventually  found  reason  to  discard  his  early  prepossessions,  and 
to  espouse,  with  equal  warmth,  the  Gallican  system  of  church 
government  and  discipline.  Advancing  steadily  in  reputation, 
Richer  was  appointed  Principal  of  the  College  Le  Moine,  and  in 
1600  was  named  by  Henry  IV.  a  member  of  the  Royal  Com- 
mission for  the  reform  of  the  University  of  Paris.*  In  January, 
1608,  he  was  elected  Syndic  of  the  Sorbonne;  and  in  this 
responsible  station  he  soon  made  himself  known  as  an  uncom- 
promising opponent  of  the  Jesuitical  school  of  doctrine,  and 
a  fearless  champion  of  the  ancient  constitution  of  the  Church 
of  France.  Considering  the  nature  of  the  influences  which 
predominated  at  the  court  of  Mary  de  Medici,  such  a  man  was 
exposed  to  the  certainty  of  a  hostile  attack  from  the  party  in 
power,  so  soon  as  a  plausible  occasion  presented  itself. 

In  the  month  of  May,  1611,  a  chapter-general  of  the  Domini- 
cans was  held  at  the  great  convent  of  their  Order  in  the  Rue  St. 


*  This  reform  of  the  University 
was  an  event  of  no  common  import- 
ance. The  Government  asserted  on 
this  occasion  its  right  to  superintend 
and  regulate  the  entire  system  of  pub- 
lic instruction ;  the  effect  of  which 
was  that  the  University  was  thence- 
forth "secularized."  The  doctriue  of 


the  supreme  authority  of  the  State 
in  this  department  was  strongly  in- 
sisted on  by  the  President  de  Thou 
and  the  advocate-general  Servin,  when 
the  new  statutes  were  formally  pre- 
sented to  the  Faculties,  September  18, 
1600.  The  same  principle  has  pre- 
vailed ever  since  in  France. 


A.D.  1611.  EDMOND  EICHEK'S  VETO.  267 

Jacques.  It  was  customary  at  such  gatherings  to  give  public 
dissertations  on  theological  subjects ;  and  it  had  been  resolved 
on  the  present  occasion  to  make  what  in  modern  phrase  would 
be  styled  a  "  demonstration  "  in  favour  of  the  absolute  supre- 
macy of  the  Pope,  and  other  Ultramontane  inventions.  On  the 
appointed  day  the  hall  was  thronged  by  a  distinguished  audi- 
ence, including  the  young  King,  the  Queen  Regent,  the  Ministers 
of  State,  the  Papal  Nuncio,  and  several  prelates.  The  Synrlic 
Richer  had  received  previous  information  of  the  purpose  of  this 
august  assembly;  and  since,  by  virtue  of  his  office  in  the 
University,  he  was  bound  to  exercise  control  over  religious 
sentiments  publicly  advanced  within  its  jurisdiction,  he  repaired 
to  the  Jacobin  convent,  with  four  of  his  colleagues  as  witnesses, 
and  placed  his  official  veto  on  the  proposed  thesis.  Its  articles 
were : — 1.  The  Sovereign  Pontiff  is  infallible  in  judging  on 
matters  of  faith  and  of  moral  doctrine.  2.  In  no  case  whatever 
is  a  Council  superior  to  the  Pope.  3.  It  belongs  to  the  Pope  to 
determine  doubtful  questions,  and  to  confirm  or  disallow  the 
decisions  of  Councils.  The  affirmative  of  these  propositions, 
said  the  Syndic,  could  not  be  lawfully  maintained,  inasmuch  as 
they  were  diametrically  opposed  to  the  decrees  of  the  (Ecu- 
menical Council  of  Constance.  Coeffeteau,  prior  of  the  convent, 
at  once  expressed  his  acquiescence, — the  more  readily  as  a 
similar  prohibition  had  been  signified  by  the  law  officers  of  the 
Crown.  But  Richer  deemed  it  his  duty  to  insist,  further,  that 
reparation  should  be  made  to  the  University  for  the  publication 
of  a  thesis  so  contrary  to  the  known  tenets  and  authoritative 
teaching  of  that  body  ;  and  for  this  purpose  he  required  that 
one  of  the  bachelors  should  make  a  speech  reprobating  the 
views  in  question,  and  setting  forth  the  claims  of  the  Council  of 
Constance  to  the  reverent  obedience  of  Catholics.  This  was 
done  accordingly.  The  bachelor  Claude  Bertin  ascended  the 
rostrum,  and  denounced  the  position  that  "  in  no  case  is  a 
Council  superior  to  the  Pope"  as  false  and  heretical,  inasmuch 
as  it  contradicts  the  definition  of  the  Council  of  Constance. 
An  attempt  was  made  by  the  Ultramontanes  to  parry  the  force 
of  this  argument,  by  questioning  the  authority  of  the  Council 
of  Constance,  on  the  ground  that  its  decrees  had  never  been 
confirmed  by  the  Pope;  but  Bertin,  under  the  direction  of 
Richer,  adduced  sufficient  proof  that  Pope  Martin.  V.  had 


268 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  VI. 


approved  the  acts  of  the  Council ;  and  when  it  was  further 
objected  that  that  approval  was  general,  and  did  not  apply  to 
every  decree  in  particular,  it  was  rejoined  that  a  general 
approval  was  all  that  was  necessary,  and  that  the  Council  of 
Trent  itself  had  been  approved  by  the  Pope  in  precisely  the 
same  manner  as  that  of  Constance.  Cardinal  du  Perron,  who  saw 
that  the  discussion  was  taking  a  turn  which  might  be  damaging 
to  the  Papal  prerogatives,  now  interposed,  and,  with  some  diffi- 
culty, succeeded  in  putting  a  stop  to  the  proceedings. 

This  unexpected  issue  of  the  meeting  at  the  Dominican 
convent  was  sufficiently  mortifying  both  to  the  Court  and  to 
the  Jesuits.  The  matter,  however,  was  not  destined  to  rest  here. 
The  first  president  of  the  Parliament,  Nicolas  de  Verdun,  after 
thanking  the  courageous  Syndic  for  the  good  service  he  had 
just  rendered  to  the  king  and  the  state,  requested  him  to  draw 
up  a  statement  of  the  Gallican  doctrine  as  to  the  authority  of 
the  Pope ;  whereupon  Eicher  put  forth  a  treatise  ,'  De  Eccle- 
siastica  et  Politica  Potestate,'  extracted  from  a  much  larger 
work  on  the  subject,  upon  which  he  had  spent  several  years  of 
laborious  study.  The  step  excited  a  violent  commotion  in  the 
Church,  and  entailed  upon  its  author  a  series  of  troubles  and 
persecutions  which  terminated  only  with  his  life. 

This  celebrated  brochure  consisted  of  no  more  than  30  pages 
in  quarto,  comprising  18  short  chapters.*  Eicher  lays  down  as 
his  leading  principle,  that  the  right  of  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction 
resides  properly  and  essentially  in  the  whole  Church,  and  is 
exercised  by  the  Pope  and  other  bishops  only  instrumentally 
and  ministerially.  The  Church  is  a  monarchical  state,  instituted 
for  supernatural  ends,  and  governed  supremely  by  the  sovereign 
pastor  of  souls,  Jesus  Christ.  The  Pope  is  its  ministerial  head ; 
his  authority  extends,  not  over  the  Church  as  a  collective  body, 
or  as  assembled  by  the  representation  in  a  General  Council,  but 
only  over  particular  churches,  taken  singly ;  which,  moreover, 
he  is  bound  to  govern  conformably  with  the  decrees  and  canons 
of  Councils.  The  gift  of  infallibility  belongs  to  the  Church  in 
its  corporate  capacity ;  every  individual  bishop,  and  even  the 
Pontiff  himself,  being  liable  to  error.  The  decreees  and  bulls 


*  The  copy  in  my  possession,  in  two 
vols.,  4to,  Colonise,  1701,  contains,  in 
addition  to  the  original  treatise,  the 


author's  Defemio  Libetti  de  ecclesiastira 
et  politicd  Potestate,  together  with 
other  documents. 


A.D.  1611.  RICHER'S  TREATISE.  269 

of  the  Pope  are  obligatory  only  so  far  forth  as  they  are  in 
accordance  with  the  canons ;  his  authority  consists  in  inter- 
preting and  executing  the  canons,  not  in  enacting  them  ;  nor 
can  he  impose  any  article  of  doctrine  or  discipline  upon  the 
Church  against  or  without  its  consent. 

With  regard  to  political  power,  Eicher  affirms  that  Christ  has 
not  conferred  upon  His  Church  any  temporal  jurisdiction.  The 
power  of  the  sword  and  of  physical  constraint  does  not  belong 
to  the  Church ;  her  sole  weapons  are  those  of  spiritual  censure 
and  excommunication.  The  sovereign,  on  the  other  hand,  is 
the  legitimate  defender  of  the  laws,  and,  as  such,  has  the  right 
to  use  the  sword  for  enforcing  the  law  ;  and  the  Church,  being 
"contained  in  the  State"  (as  St.  Optatus  says),  is  subject  in 
temporal  matters  to  the  lawful  enactments  of  the  civil  power. 
Appeals  "  comme  d'abus  "  are  lawful,  and  ought  to  be  enter- 
tained by  princes,  in  their  quality  of  protectors  of  the  canons. 
The  Church  has  a  certain  measure  of  indirect  power  in  things 
temporal,  by  reason  of  its  spiritual  authority;  but  in  no  case 
can  this  extend  to  personal  constraint,  much  less  to  the  deposi- 
tion of  a  sovereign  from  the  throne. 

No  sooner  had  this  little  volume  issued  from  the  press,  than 
a  perfect  tempest  of  indignation  arose  among  the  partisans  of 
the  opposite  system,  headed  by  the  Nuncio,  Cardinal  du  Perron, 
the  Bishop  of  Paris,  and  Andre'  Duval,  a  famous  doctor  of  the 
Sorbonne.  Malicious  imputations  of  all  kinds  were  heaped  on 
the  devoted  author.  Du  Perron  denounced  him  to  the  Queen 
as  an  enemy  to  royalty,  a  traitor  to  the  Crown  of  France  ; 
while  in  the  same  breath,  with  ludicrous  inconsistency,  he  was 
charged  with  exalting  the  temporal  power  above  the  spiritual, 
and  thereby  attacking  the  very  foundations  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  On  one  point  his  enemies  were  unanimous  —  that 
Richer  was  a  man  to  be  crushed,  at  any  cost,  and  at  all  hazards. 
No  time  was  lost  in  concocting  measures  to  depose  him  from 
the  office  of  Syndic  of  the  Sorbonne.  The  Gallicans,  however, 
were  numerous  and  influential  in  the  Theological  Faculty; 
and  it  was  difficult  to  find  any  one  of  the  contrary  opinions 
who  could  reasonably  be  put  forward  as  a  competitor  to  the 
gifted  Richer.  At  length  Jean  Filesac  was  selected  for  the  pur- 
pose, and  no  exertion  was  spared  by  the  Ultramontanes  to 
create  such  a  majority  among  the  doctors  as  might  secure  the 


270  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VI. 

success  of  their  candidate,  if  by  any  means  Richer  could  be 
driven  from  his  post. 

While  these  intrigues  were  in  progress,  the  appeal  of  the 
University  against  the  Jesuits,  adjourned  from  the  preceding 
year,  came  on  for  hearing  before  the  Parliament,  on  the  15th 
of  December,  1611.  The  counsel  for  the  University  were 
the  Advocate-General  Servin  and  Pierre  de  la  Marteliere. 
The  speech  of  the  latter  was  a  very  remarkable  performance, 
abounding  with  vigorous  argument,  skilful  rhetoric,  and  elo- 
quent invective.  Richer  himself  gave  his  assistance  in  pre- 
paring it.  "  Never  can  we  be  secure,"  said  the  orator,  "  so  long 
as  these  pestilent  enemies  of  the  public  peace  are  in  the  midst 
of  us.  When  they  first  appeared,  ominous  predictions  were 
made  in  the  very  place  where  I  am  now  speaking,  as  to  their 
pernicious  designs,  both  with  regard  to  things  spiritual  and 
temporal.  These  apprehensions  have  been  but  too  painfully 
realised  ;  for  thirty  years  and  more  the  Jesuits  have  fanned  the 
flames  of  civil  discord  throughout  France ;  the  League,  which 
was  their  work,  brought  upon  us  untold  miseries  ;  and  now  that 
these  are  passing  away,  they  are  labouring  to  concentrate  in 
their  own  Society  the  entire  education  of  the  country,  and,  for 
tli at  purpose,  to  supplant  and  overturn  the  venerable  University 
of  Paris.  The  Sorbonne  is  the  main  bulwark  of  the  Gallican 
Church,  and  of  its  ancient  liberties ;  if  the  Jesuits  could  destroy 
it,  they  would  no  longer  have  any  reason  to  fear  the  condemna- 
tion of  their  books  and  their  doctrine.  Their  doctrine  is  most 
dangerous  and  execrable  ;  according  to  them  the  Pope  is  ab- 
solute, not  only  in  the  government  of  the  Church,  but  even 
in  secular  concerns ;  and  kings  who  refuse  to  submit  to  his 
supremacy  are  so  many  tyrants  whom  God  requires  to  be 
exterminated.  What  fatal  evils  have  resulted  from  this  dogma ! 
It  is  this  monstrous  error  which  keeps  in  separation  from  the 
Church  so  many  Christian  nations,  who  would  have  no  repug- 
nance to  Catholic  truth  were  it  not  that  they  find  these  ex- 
travagant notions  propagated  as  indispensable  verities.  So 
infatuated  are  the  Jesuits  on  this  point,  that  they  strive  to 
discredit  and  injure  even  the  most  orthodox  Catholics  \vho 
may  decline  to  accept  their  favourite  theory,  and  persecute 
them  as  enemies  to  the  Church.  All  means  and  all  instruments 
are  lawful  in  their  view,  for  the  purpose  of  success ;  and  by 


A.D.  1611.         THE  UNIVERSITY  AND  THE  JESUITS.  271 

their  system  of  mental  reservations  they  are  enabled  to  sub- 
scribe whatever  declaration  may  be  required  of  them,  without 
conceiving  themselves  bound  to  adhere  to  it  in  practice."  Upon 
these  grounds  La  Marteliere  demanded  that  the  Jesuits  should 
be  strictly  confined  to  the  conditions  laid  down  in  their  letters 
of  re-establishment  in  France ;  that  they  should  never  be  per- 
mitted, under  any  pretext,  to  impart  public  instruction ;  that 
they  should  be  compelled  to  conform  to  the  tradition  of  the 
Church  of  France,  as  opposed  to  the  novel  tenets  which  had 
only  been  invented  to  promote  their  own  ascendency. 

The  decision  of  the  Court,  as  all  had  foreseen,  was  adverse 
to  the  Company.  On  the  22nd  of  December  a  decree  was  pro- 
nounced forbidding  the  Jesuits  to  interfere,  directly  or  indirectly, 
in  the  education  of  youth  within  the  city  of  Paris ;  and  in  con- 
sequence they  were  obliged  to  close  the  doors  of  their  College 
ele  Clermont.  The  Advocate-General  insisted,  by  way  of  further 
security,  that  the  intrusive  Fathers  should  subscribe  a  test  of 
orthodoxy,  consisting  of  the  four  following  articles :  —  1.  A 
General  Council  is  superior  to  the  Pope.  2.  The  Pope  has  no 
jurisdiction  over  the  temporal  power  of  sovereigns,  and  cannot 
deprive  them  of  it  by  excommunication.  3.  A  priest  who  be- 
comes acquainted,  through  the  confessional,  with  any  attempt 
or  conspiracy  against  the  King  or  the  State  is  bound  to  reveal 
it  to  the  civil  magistrate.  4.  All  ecclesiastics  are  subjects  of 
the  King,  and  answerable  to  the  secular  Government. 

These  positions,  it  was  of  course  well  known,  could  not  be 
honestly  accepted  by  the  Jesuits,  consistently  with  their  engage- 
ments with  the  Court  of  Rome.  Montholon,  the  advocate  for 
the  Society,  remarked,  somewhat  to  the  embarrassment  of  his 
opponents,  that  it  would  not  be  easy  to  get  the  four  axioms  in 
question  adopted  even  by  the  Sorbonne  itself ;  as  soon  as  the 
Sorbonne  had  subscribed  them,  he  engaged  that  the  Jesuits 
would  be  willing  to  follow  their  example.*  The  third  article, 
more  especially,  was  vehemently  attacked  by  the  Papal  Nuncio 
and  Cardinal  du  Perron,  who  declared  it  manifestly  heretical, 
and  destructive  of  all  religion.  The  wrath  of  the  Nuncio 
exploded  in  outrageous  menaces.  The  Pope,  he  threatened, 
would  convoke  a  National  Council  to  brand  the  teaching  of 

*  Le  Vassor,  Liv.  3. 


272 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  VI. 


the  Sorbonne  as  false  and  heretical ;  and  in  the  meanwhile  his 
Holiness  would  hurl  the  censures  of  the  Church  upon  any  who 
might  venture  to  maintain  the  four  propositions  attempted  to 
be  imposed  on  the  Jesuits.  As  for  the  Advocate-General  Servin, 
he  reviled  him  in  unmeasured  terms  as  a  Huguenot,  a  hireling 
agent  of  the  King  of  England,  who  ought  to  be  excommunicated 
and  stripped  of  his  office,  for  attempting  to  sow  jealousy  and 
discord  between  the  Holy  Father  and  the  Most  Christian  King.* 

The  Jesuits,  when  called  on  to  reply  to  Servin's  demand, 
stated  in  general  terms  that  their  statutes  obliged  them  to  con- 
form to  the  rules  of  the  Universities  with  which  they  were 
incorporated,  and  that  accordingly  they  were  ready  to  obey 
those  of  the  University  of  Paris,  whenever  they  should  be  en- 
rolled among  its  members.  This  was,  of  course,  a  mere  evasion. 
In  consequence,  however,  of  the  remonstrances  of  Du  Perron 
and  his  friends,  another  form  of  declaration  was  substituted; 
and  in  February,  1 612,  the  Jesuits  signed  at  the  registry  of  the 
Parliament  a  document  pledging  them  to  accept  the  doctrine 
of  the  Sorbonne  with  regard  to  the  independence  and  personal 
security  of  sovereigns,  the  maintenance  of  their  authority,  and 
the  liberties  of  the  Grallican  Church,  as  recognized  and  observed 
from  time  immemorial.  But  this  act,  as  the  Abbe  Eacine 
remarks,t  bound  them  to  nothing  at  all,  since  it  was  done 
without  the  consent  of  their  General ;  which  consent,  as  they 
perfectly  well  knew,  was  essential  to  its  validity. 

The  result  of  these  proceedings  was  not  likely  to  mitigate 
the  animosity  of  the  contending  parties.  The  Syndic  .Richer, 
who  had  been  the  principal  promoter  of  the  appeal  to  the  Parlia- 
ment, -became  from  that  moment  a  man  doomed  to  inevitable 
ruin  by  the  vengeance  of  the  Ultramontanes.  Their  first  move 
was  to  propose  a  condemnation  of  his  treatise  '  De  Ecclesiastica 
et  Politica  Potestate '  by  the  Theological  Faculty  of  the  Uni- 
versity; but  this  was  frustrated  by  the  prompt  interposition 
of  the  Parliament,  which  inhibited  the  Sorbonne  from  pro- 
ceeding to  the  examination  of  the  work,  and  ordered  all  the 
copies  of  it  to  be  collected  and  deposited  in  the  registry  of 
the  Court. 


*  See  a  curious  account  of  these 
scenes  in  Le  Vassor,  Hist,  de  Louis 
XIII,  Liv.  iii. 


•   f  Racine,  Uift.  Ecclesiastique,  Liv. 
x.  p.  251. 


A.I).  1612.  RICHER'S  TREATISE.  273 

Failing  in  this,  the  confederates  carried  the  matter  before 
Du  Perron  (as  Archbishop  of  Sens)  and  his  comprovincial 
bishops,  who  happened  to  be  assembled  at  Paris  upon  other 
business;  and  here  they  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  censure  of 
the  obnoxious  publication,  as  containing  many  statements  and 
opinions  which  were  "  false,  scandalous,  and,  in  their  apparent 
sense*  schismatical  and  heretical."  To  this  sentence  the  pre- 
lates appended  a  saving  clause,  to  the  effect  that  they  by  no 
means  intended  to  impugn  the  rights  of  the  Crown  or  the 
"  liberties  of  the  Gallican  Church."  But  it  is  not  easy  to  per- 
ceive the  exact  force  of  this  qualification,  inasmuch  as  the 
whole  gist  of  Richer's  work  was  to  defend  and  enforce  the  very 
rights  and  liberties  to  which  they  referred ;  so  that  the  former 
could  not  be  condemned  without  of  necessity  striking  a  blow 
(pro  tanto)  against  the  latter. 

The  undaunted  Richer  now  availed  himself  of  the  legal 
means  of  self-protection  which  the  constitution  afforded  him, 
and  appealed  to  the  Parliament  "comme  d'abus"  against  the 
Archbishop  and  his  suffragans.  But  his  friends  among  the  magis- 
trates lacked  either  the  power  or  the  courage  to  support  him  in 
this  emergency.  They  were,  probably,  unwilling  to  hazard  a 
direct  collision  with  the  Court,  the  Bishops,  and  the  Papal  See  ; 
and  the  result  was  that  the  letters  authorizing  the  prosecution 
of  the  appeal  were  refused.  Thus  deserted  by  those  in  whose 
cause  he  had  so  manfully  contended,  the  Syndic  was  compelled 
at  length  to  succumb.  The  importunate  clamour  of  his  enemies 
extorted  from  the  Regent  letters  patent  for  superseding  him  in 
his  office,  and  electing  another  Syndic  in  his  place.  This  was 
carried  into  execution  by  the  Sorbonne,  though  not  without  a 
sharp  contest  among  the  doctors,  twenty-five  of  whom  were 
bold  enough  to  vote  against  the  resolution  :  and  the  persecuted 
Richer,  after  a  masterly  speech  in  vindication  of  his  principles, 
vacated  his  seat,  and  never  afterwards  re-appeared  at  the 
meetings  of  the  Faculty.  He  retired  contentedly  into  solitude, 
where  he  devoted  himself  to  learned  study,  and  to  the  compo- 
sition of  many  excellent  and  valuable  works.  These,  however, 
were  not  given  to  the  world  till  after  his  death,  which  took 
place  in  November,  1631. 


*  "  Comme  clles  sonncnt." 
VOL.  I. 


274 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  VI. 


The  rancorous  animosity  of  the  U tramontanes  against  Richer 
was  not  disarmed  by  his  submission,  but  continued  during  the 
remainder  of  his  life.  At  one  time  the  Duke  of  Epernon  caused 
him  to  be  seized  and  confined  in  the  prison  of  St.  Victor,  with 
the  intention,  it  is  said,  of  delivering  him  over  to  the  tender 
mercies  of  the  Inquisition  at  Rome.  The  University  and  the 
Parliament  interfered,  and  obtained  his  liberation.  A  dark  tale 
of  personal  intimidation  and  violence,  to  which  he  was  sub- 
jected by  Father  Joseph,  under  the  orders  of  Richelieu,  is 
related  by  the  Abbe  Racine.*  That  terrible  Capuchin,  he  states, 
invited  Richer  to  dinner,  and  pressed  him  to  sign  a  retractation 
of  his  doctrine  as  to  the  nature  and  limits  of  the  Papal  au- 
thority. On  his  declining,  two  ruffians  rushed  from  behind  the 
arras,  and  holding  each  a  dagger  to  his  breast,  compelled  him, 
under  threats  of  instant  death,  to  affix  his  signature  to  the 
required  document.  These  sensational  details  must  not  be  too 
easily  credited.  The  story  is  found  in  Morisot's  Letters,  but  the 
letter  in  which  it  occurs  is  said  to  be  of  doubtful  authenticity ; 
while  Gui  Patin,  who  from  his  known  prejudices  might  be  ex- 
pected to  confirm  it,  makes  no  mention  whatever  of  any  attempt 
at  violence.  There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that  Richer  was  induced 
by  Father  Joseph  and  Talon,  cure  of  St.  Gervais,  to  give  a 
written  explanation  of  his  doctrine,  disavowing  any  intention 
to  derogate  from  the  just  authority  of  the  Pope,  and  submitting 
his  work  to  the  Holy  See,  as  the  "  infallible  judge  of  truth."  f 

The  Parliament,  though  it  had  been  deterred  by  motives  of 
political  expediency  from  pursuing  a  bold  course  in  defence 
of  Richer,  took  an  early  opportunity  of  showing  that  its  views 
as  to  the  autocratic  supremacy  claimed  by  the  Roman  See 
remained  unchanged.  Pope  Paul  V.,  perceiving  that,  in  spite 
of  his  repeated  injunctions,  the  oath  of  allegiance  still  found 
considerable  acceptance  among  the  English  Catholics,  commis- 
sioned the  Spanish  Jesuit  Suarez  to  write  a  book  in  support  of 
Ultramontanism — a  service  which,  from  his  distinguished  repu- 
tation, was  likely  to  be  of  signal  advantage  to  the  Holy  See. 
Suarez  complied,  and  published,  in  1613,  his  'Defensio  Fidei 
Catholicse  adversus  errores  Sectae  AnglicanaB ;  cum  Respon- 


*  Hift.    Eccletiastique,    Liv.    x.    p. 
298. 

f  See  the  Vie  du  Pere  Joseph,  in 


the  Archives  Curieuses  de  I'Hisfoire  de 
France,  2  Se'rie,  torn.  iv.  Also  L>'Ar- 
gentre,  Collect.  Judic.,  torn.  ii.  p.  303. 


A.D.  1613.  CONDEMNATION  OF  SUAREZ.  275 

sione  ad  Apologiam  pro  Jnramento  Fidelitatis,  et  ad  Praefa- 
tionem  Monitoriam  Serenissimi  Jacobi  Magnae  Britannia?  Eegis.' 
The  work  is  divided  into  six  books.     In  the  first  and  second 
the  author  sets  forth  the  divergence  of  the  so-called  Eeformed 
Religion,  as  professed  in  England,  from  that  of  primitive  anti- 
quity and  the  general  tradition  of  the  Church.     In  the  third 
he  establishes  the  supreme  and  sole  sovereignty  of  the  Roman 
Pontiff  in  the  government  of  the  Church.     In  the  fourth  he 
maintains  the  privileges  of  the  clergy,  whom  he  declares  to  be 
not  amenable  to  the  jurisdiction  of  secular  tribunals.     The  fifth 
demonstrates  the  falsehood  and  absurdity  of  the  favourite  Pro- 
testant dogma,  that  the  Pope  is  Antichrist.     The  sixth  is  occu- 
pied with  an  examination  of  the  oath  of  allegiance,  which  is 
pronounced  to  be  irreconcilable  with  the  faith  and  obligations  of 
Catholics.     James  I,  as  soon  as  the  work  appeared,  ordered  it 
to  be  publicly  burned  by  the  hangman  in  St.  Paul's  Churchyard, 
and  wrote  a  letter  full  of  reproaches  to  Philip  III.  of  Spain,  for 
harbouring  one  guilty  of  such  pestilent  attacks  upon  the  rights 
and  majesty  of  kings.  In  June,  1614,  the  Advocate-General  Servin 
brought  this  treatise  under  the  notice  of  the  French  Parliament, 
and  condemned  it  in  strong  language  as  tending  to  instigate  cri- 
minal enterprises  against  the  sacred  persons  and  authority  of  sove- 
reigns.    The  magistrates,  after  a  brief  examination,  commanded 
the  book  to  be  torn  and  destroyed  by  the  hands  of  the  execu- 
tioner— a  sentence  which  was  carried  into  effect  the  next  day. 

Not  content  with  this  exhibition  of  displeasure,  the  Parliament 
proceeded  to  summon  to  their  bar  four  of  the  most  eminent  of 
the  Jesuit  fathers — Armand,  Cotton,  Fronton  du  Due,  and  8ir- 
mond — who,  on  their  appearance,  were  sternly  reprimanded  by 
the  President  for  having  violated  their  engagements  made  two 
years  before,  and  were  ordered  to  obtain  immediately  from  their 
General  at  Rome  a  renewal  of  his  command  that  they  should 
conform  to  the  doctrine  of  the  University  of  Paris  as  to  the 
authority  and  personal  security  of  kings.  Moreover,  they  were 
required  to  contradict,  in  their  public  discourses,  the  tenets 
advanced  by  Suarez;  in  default  of  which,  it  was  added,  they 
would  be  proceeded  against  as  traitors  to  the  Crown,  and  dis- 
turbers of  the  public  peace.* 


*  Le  Vussor,  Liv.  v. 

T   2 


276 


THE  GALLTCAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  VI. 


The  next  event  of  importance  that  claims  our  notice  is  the 
memorable  meeting  of  the  States-General  in  the  year  1614. 

The  intrigues  and  dissensions  of  the  great  nobles  had  become 
a  subject  of  grave  embarrassment  to  the  government  of  Mary 
de  Medici.  The  Prince  of  Conde,  first  prince  of  the  blood,  had 
taken  up  an  attitude  of  threatening  opposition.  On  the  occa- 
sion of  the  double  matrimonial  alliance  with  the  Court  of  Spain, 
which  was  negociated  without  his  knowledge  or  consent,  he  had 
retired  from  Paris,  assembled  his  adherents,  and  made  evident 
preparations  for  submitting  his  grievances  to  the  arbitration  of 
the  sword.  The  Due  de  Eohan,  as  leader  of  the  Huguenots, 
took  steps  of  the  same  ominous  kind ;  and  the  nation  seemed  to 
be  once  more  on  the  verge  of  a  sanguinary  civil  strife.  But 
at  the  moment  when  matters  had  apparently  reached  a  crisis, 
the  Court  suddenly  effected  an  accommodation  with  the  malcon- 
tent princes  at  Ste  Menehould,  on  the  15th  of  May,  1614;  and 
by  the  first  article  of  the  treaty  then  concluded,  the  States- 
General  were  convoked  to  meet  at  Sens  on  the  25th  of  August. 
But  the  Eegent  and  her  advisers,  who  feared  that  the  States,  if 
they  assembled  before  the  young  king  was  legally  of  age  to 
assume  the  government,  would  insist  on  decisive  measures  for 
a  change  in  the  administration  of  affairs,  contrived  to  postpone, 
on  various  pretexts,  the  actual  opening  of  the  session  until  the 
autumn.  Louis  XIII.  entered  on  his  fourteenth  year,  and  was 
declared  to  have  attained  his  majority,  on  the  27th  of  September, 
1614.  His  first  act  of  sovereignty  was  to  intimate  his  pleasure 
that  the  government  should  continue,  as  before,  in  the  hands  of 
his  mother,  whom  he  placed  at  the  head  of  the  Council  of  State. 
Mary  de  Medici,  having  gained  her  object  by  this  important 
transaction,  which  established  her  power  on  the  most  incontest- 
able foundation,  caused  the  deputies  of  the  three  orders  to 
assemble  in  the  Salle  Bourbon  at  the  Louvre,  on  the  27th  of 
October. 

The  Ecclesiastical  Chamber  on  this  occasion  was  composed  of 
one  hundred  and  forty  members,  among  whom  were  five  cardi- 
nals,* seven  archbishops,  and  forty-seven  bishops.  The  venerable 
Cardinal  de  Joyeuse,  Archbishop  of  Rouen  and  Dean  of  the 


*  These  were,  De  Joyeuse,  Du 
Perron,  De  Sourdis,  Francois  de  la 
Rochefoucauld  Bishop  of  Senlis,  and 


Louis  de  Lorraine  Archbishop  of 
Reims,  a  son  of  Henry  Duke  of  Guise, 
who  was  assassinated  in  1588. 


A.D.  1614.          MEETING  OF  THE  STATES-GENERAL.  277 

Sacred  College,  was  appointed  President  of  the  Chamber.  One 
of  the  clerical  delegates  was  Armand  Jean  Duplessis-Richelieu, 
the  same  who  was  destined  in  the  sequel  to  rule  France,  and 
well-nigh  Europe,  under  the  title  of  the  Cardinal  de  Eichelieu. 
He  was  at  this  time  a  young  man  twenty-nine  years  of  age,  and 
held  the  bishopric  of  Lujon — a  dignity  which,  after  the  lax 
fashion  of  those  days,  had  become  a  sort  of  apanage  in  his 
family. 

After  the  customary  harangues  addressed  to  the  throne,  in 
which  De  Marqueinont,  Archbishop  of  Lyons,  officiated  as  orator 
for  the  clergy,  the  three  orders  proceeded  to  the  transaction  of 
business,  the  clerical  deputies  holding  their  sittings  in  the 
refectory  of  the  Augustinian  Convent. 

The  first  measure  propounded  was  the  reception  and  publica- 
tion of  the  decrees  and  canons  of  the  Council  of  Trent.  The 
same  demand  had  been  made  at  several  former  meetings,  but 
always  with  an  unsuccessful  result,  for  reasons  with  which  the 
reader  is  already  acquainted.*  The  present  occasion,  however, 
was  judged  especially  favourable  to  a  repetition  of  the  attempt, 
in  consequence  of  the  unbounded  devotion  displayed  by  the 
Regent  and  her  principal  counsellors  towards  the  See  of  Rome. 
The  resolution  was  drawn  up  accordingly,  and  the  Archbishop 
of  Lyons  and  the  Bishop  of  Beauvais  were  deputed  to  solicit  the 
concurrence  of  the  other  two  orders,  so  that  it  might  be  presented 
to  the  throne  as  the  unanimous  act  of  the  States-General.  The 
Chamber  of  Nobles,  after  some  hesitation,  gave  its  assent ;  but 
the  Tiers-Etat  was  impracticable.  In  vain  did  the  bishop  repre- 
sent that  a  distinct  reservation  was  made  in  favour  of  the  rights 
of  the  Crown,  the  franchises  of  the  Gallican  Church,  and  the 
privileges  belonging  to  cathedral  chapters,  abbeys,  and  other 
religious  corporations.  The  president,  without  entering  on  any 
discussion  of  the  authority  of  the  Council,  replied  in  general 
terms  that  it  had  remained  in  abeyance  in  France  for  more 
than  fifty  years,  and  that  it  was  by  no  means  desirable  to 
embarrass  themselves  at  this  moment  by  publicly  enforcing  it. 
Many  other  Councils,  he  observed,  had  never  been  received  in 
France ;  and,  nevertheless,  their  labours  had  been  duly  appreci- 
ated, and  their  directions  acted  upon  to  the  advantage  of  the 


£ee  chapter  ii.,  p.  101 


^78  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP;  VI. 

Church.  He  proceeded  to  observe,  with  grave  irony,  that  it  lay 
in  the  power  of  the  clergy  themselves  to  carry  into  effect  many 
of  the  most  salutary  regulations  of  the  Council  of  Trent.  They 
were  quite  at  liberty  to  renounce  plurality  of  benefices,  and  to 
correct  various  other  abuses  which  the  Council  had  condemned. 
This  would  be  a  course  most  edifying  to  the  nation  at  large. 
The  good  example  thus  given  would  tend  no  less  powerfully  to 
the  recognition  of  the  authority  of  the  Council  than  the  most 
solemn  formal  publication  of  it.  The  Tiers-Etat,  to  conclude, 
thanked  the  clergy  for  their  zeal  for  the  interests  of  the  Catholic 
religion,  and  would  gladly  endeavour  to  second  their  good  inten- 
tions. 

This  was  not  a  propitious  omen  for  the  unanimity  of  the  three 
chambers  in  their  deliberations  at  this  important  juncture. 
Other  incidents  followed,  the  effect  of  which  was  to  aggravate 
their  differences;  and  we  are  assured  by  one  historian,*  that 
ijiich  was  precisely  the  result  desired  by  the  ministers  and  the 
Court ;  since,  the  States  being  manifestly  unable  to  agree  among 
themselves  as  to  the  measures  to  be  recommended  for  the  public 
welfare,  the  Queen  would  be  left  at  liberty  to  pursue  her  own 
policy,  and  to  defer  or  withhold  all  action  upon  perplexing  and 
inconvenient  subjects. 

When  the  Chamber  of  the  Tiers-Etat  proceeded,  on  the  15th 
of  December,  to  the  consideration  of  its  caliier,  or  general  report 
to  the  sovereign,  an  article  was  inserted  at  the  head  of  the  docu- 
ment, which  emphatically  marks  the  current  of  feeling  among 
the  French  people  upon  one  of  the  most  agitating  topics  of  the 
day.  The  following  is  its  substance  : — "  That,  in  order  to  arrest 
the  course  of  the  dangerous  and  seditious  doctrine  lately  broached 
against  sovereigns  and  the  ruling  powers  ordained  by  God,  the 
king  be  entreated  to  enact,  as  a  fundamental  law  of  the  kingdom, 
that  there  exists  no  power  on  earth,  temporal  or  spiritual,  which 
possesses  any  right  to  deprive  our  monarchs  of  their  dominions, 
or  to  absolve  their  subjects  from  the  allegiance  and  obedience 
which  they  owe  to  them,  upon  any  pretext  whatsoever.  That 
this  statute  be  sworn  to  and  subscribed  by  the  deputies  of  the 
States  now  assembled,  and  henceforth  by  all  magistrates  and 
public  officers.  That  all  professors,  public  lecturers,  doctors, 


*  Le  Vassor,  Hisloire  de  Louis  XIII.,  torn.  iii.  Liv.  v. 


A.D.  1614.          MEETING  OF  THE  STATES-GENERAL.  279 

and  preachers  be  enjoined  to  enforce  and  defend  it.  That  the 
contrary  opinion  be  declared  impious,  detestable,  and  wholly  at 
variance  with  the  state  and  constitution  of  France,  which  depend 
immediately  on  God  alone.  That  all  persons  maintaining  oppo- 
site sentiments  be  declared  enemies  to  the  Crown,  and  violators 
of  the  fundamental  laws  of  the  kingdom;  and  that  if  any 
foreigner,  whether  layman  or  ecclesiastic,  shall  publish,  either 
by  speech  or  writing,  aught  in  opposition  to  the  said  enactment, 
the  ecclesiastics  of  the  same  order  domiciled  in  France  shall  be 
bound  to  contradict  and  refute  the  said  publication,  without 
ambiguity  or  equivocation,  under  pain  of  being  prosecuted  as 
abettors  of  the  enemies  of  this  realm."  . 

There  was  no  mistaking  the  animus  of  this  proceeding.  It 
was  a  direct  blow  against  the  Court  of  Home,  the  Jesuits,  and 
all  upholders  of  Ultramontanism.  As  such,  it  excited  an  outcry 
of  indignant  alarm  in  the  Ecclesiastical  Chamber,  who  instantly 
despatched  a  deputation  to  remonstrate  with  the  Commons  for 
having  presumed  to  frame  an  article  bearing  on  religion  without 
first  consulting  the  clergy,  and  to  request  that  they  would  at 
once  communicate  it  to  the  other  two  chambers.  The  Tiers 
attempted  to  justify  themselves  by  remarking  that  the  article  in 
question  had  no  reference  to  doctrine,  but  was  .merely  concerned 
with  the  restoration  of  discipline  and  the  correction  of  abuses ; 
but  this  was  a  transparent  evasion.  After  much  hesitation, 
however,  the  article  was  transmitted  to  the  clergy  and  the 
nobles  with  a  request  for  their  concurrence.  The  clergy  now 
entrusted  the  advocacy  of  their  interests  to  the  practised  hands 
of  Du  Perron;  and  that  veteran  champion  lost  no  time  in 
applying  all  the  resources  of  his  argumentative  and  rhetorical 
skill  to  the  difficult  point  at  issue.  On  the  last  day  of  Decem- 
ber he  proceeded,  in  company  with  the  Archbishops  of  Aix  and 
Lyons,  to  the  Chamber  of  Nobles,  where  he  delivered  an 
eloquent  harangue  three  hours  in  length,  insisting  that  the 
proposed  article  tended  to  engender  jealousy  and  discord 
between  the  Crown  of  France  and  the  Holy  See,  to  endanger 
public  tranquillity,  and  to  create  both  intestine  division  among 
the  different  classes  in  France,  and  schism  between  the  National 
Church  and  the  rest  of  Christendom.  That  a  sovereign  might 
forfeit  his  crown  through  heresy  or  other  grave  delinquencies, 
was,  he  contended,  a  principle  generally  received  in  Catholic 


280  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VI. 

countries,  though  it  had  not  hitherto  been  recognized  in  France ; 
but  at  all  events  the  question  was  one  beyond  the  competence 
of  any  lay  assembly,  and  belonged  to  the  jurisdiction  of  an 
(Ecumenical  Council.  The  proposition  of  the  Tiers-Etat,  added 
the  Cardinal,  plainly  emanated  either  from  Saumur  or  from 
England ;  and  he  concluded  by  announcing  with  great  vehe- 
mence, that  the  French  clergy  would  rather  suffer  martyrdom 
than  set  their  hands  to  any  such  declaration  as  this  measure 
attempted  to  impose  upon  them. 

The  appeal  was  successful.  The  nobles  acknowledged  the 
force  of  Du  Perron's  reasoning,  and  declared  themselves  ready 
to  combine  with  the  clerical  chamber  in  order  to  procure  the 
suppression  of  the  article.  Accordingly  a  numerous  deputation 
of  their  order  attended  the  Cardinal  and  his  colleagues,  when, 
on  the  2nd  of  January,  1615,  they  made  their  appearance  on  a 
similar  errand  before  the  deputies  of  the  Tiers-Etat.  But  here 
their  reception  was  decidedly  unfavourable.  Du  Perron  exerted 
himself  to  the  utmost,  and  in  every  way  worthily  sustained  his 
reputation  as  a  polemic.  He  represented  that  questions  of  theo- 
logical doctrine  and  questions  of  ecclesiastical  discipline  cannot 
be  separated  from  each  other,  and  that  both  appertain  exclusively 
to  the  province  of  the  clergy.  He  fully  admitted  the  inviolable 
character  of  the  persons  of  sovereigns,  which  had  been  established 
by  the  Council  of  Constance  among  many  others  ;  but  suggested 
that  opinions  concerning  the  deposition  of  kings,  and  the  power 
of  dispensation  from  the  oath  of  allegiance,  stood  on  a  different 
footing,  and,  to  say  the  least,  were  doubtful  and  conflicting.  It 
would,  therefore,  be  obviously  rash,  and  unbecoming  to  exact  a 
solemn  adjuration  from  the  national  representatives  upon  specu- 
lative topics  of  this  nature.  He  quoted  the  sentiments  of  the 
Chancellor  Gerson,  and  of  Ockham,  the  "invincible  doctor," 
who,  though  notoriously  opposed  in  their  general  teaching  to 
Ultramontanism,  yet  held  that  monarchs,  for  certain  grievous 
crimes  and  misdemeanors,  might  justly  be  deposed  and  punished 
by  their  subjects.  "  There  is  a  wide  difference,"  urged  Du  Perron, 
"  between  the  heathen  emperors  of  the  first  centuries,  and  those 
monarchs  who,  in  our  own  days,  may  fall  into  heresy  or  apostasy. 
The  former  had  never  acknowledged  Jesus  Christ,  nor  bound 
themselves  by  any  engagement  to  live  and  die  in  the  profession 
of  the  Christian  religion.  Whereas  the  latter,  having  expressly 


A.D.  1615.          MEETING  OF  THE  STATES-GENERAL.  281 

declared  their  subjection  to  the  King  of  kings,  from  whom  they 
derive  their  sovereignty,  render  themselves  unworthy  of  the 
crown  if  they  rebel  against  Him,  and  violate  the  oath  which 
they  have  taken  to  serve  Him  faithfully."* 

But  all  was  of  no  avail.  The  Commons,  by  the  mouth  of 
their  president,  Eobert  Miron,  replied  that  since,  by  the 
Cardinal's  own  admission,  the  point  in  dispute  was  "pro- 
blematical," they  hoped  they  might  without  offence  maintain 
the  view  which  appeared  to  them  most  in  accordance  with  the 
word  of  God ;  that  their  main  object  was  to  uphold  the  funda- 
mental principle  that  the  crown  and  monarchy  of  France  are 
independent  of  the  Pope;  and  that  they  did  not  understand 
how  it  could  be  deemed  a  grievance  by  any  class  of  his  Majesty's 
subjects  to  declare,  under  the  sanction  of  an  oath,  that  his 
throne  owes  no  submission  to  ecclesiastical  potentates,  and  that 
neither  Pope  nor  Council  can  rightfully  depose  him  for  any 
cause  whatever.  In  fine,  he  intimated  that  the  Tiers-Etat 
could  not  consent  to  withdraw  their  article. 

An  embroilment  now  ensued  between  the  different  public 
bodies,  which  at  one  time  threatened  lamentable  consequences. 
On  the  very  day  that  Du  Perron  argued  with  such  sur- 
passing ability  before  the  assembled  nobles,  an  application 
was  made  upon  the  same  subject  to  the  Parliament  by  the 
Advocate-General  Servin.  Considering  that  the  Court  had  at 
various  times  published  decisions  concerning  the  supreme 
authority  and  independence  of  the  Crown,  it  was  contrary  to 
law,  he  contended,  to  re-open  discussions  upon  a  matter  already 
determined;  he  therefore  demanded  that  the  several  decrees 
referred  to  should  be  re-published,  with  a  positive  prohibition  of 
further  debates  on  the  subject  in  any  quarter  whatever.  The 
motion  was  immediately  granted;  and  the  clergy,  rightly 
interpreting  it  as  levelled  against  themselves,  hastened  to 
petition  the  king  against  the  proceedings,  as  an  infraction  of 
the  privileges  of  the  States-General; — a  step  in  which  the 
Chamber  of  Nobles  concurred.  The  Council  of  State  met 
without  delay ;  and  after  hearing  a  speech  from  the  Prince  of 
Conde,f  who  recommended  a  policy  of  conciliation,  it  was 


*  Me'moires  du  Clergf  de  France,  torn.  xiii.  p.  315. 

t  This  speech  is  reported  by  D'Avrigny,  Me'm.  Chronol.,  torn.  i.  p.  221. 


282  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VI. 

resolved  on  the  one  hand  to  admonish  the  Chambers  to  refrain 
from  further  discussion  of  the  points  of  difference  that  had 
arisen  between  them,  and  on  the  other,  to  forbid  the  execution 
of  the  arret  of  the  Parliament.  An  order  of  Council  to  this 
effect  was  issued  on  the  7th  January.  Meanwhile  the  "  Loi 
fondarnentale  "  of  the  Tiers-Etat  had  been  printed  and  widely 
circulated  throughout  France.  Its  appearance  was  followed  by 
a  shower  of  pamphlets  and  manifestos  on  both  sides  of  the 
question ;  among  the  rest  was  one  from  the  royal  polemic 
James  L,  who  manfully  defended  the  English  "  oath  of  allegi- 
ance "  against  the  aspersions  of  Cardinal  du  Perron. 

The  clergy,  however,  were  not  satisfied  with  this  decision, 
although  it  virtually  settled  the  matter  in  their  favour.  They 
required  that  the  contested  article  should  be  expunged  from  the 
Cahier  of  the  Tiers-Etat ;  and  threatened  that,  unless  this  were 
conceded,  they  would  close  their  sittings  and  withdraw  from 
further  participation  in  the  proceedings  of  the  States.  The 
nobles  supported  them  in  this  peremptory  demand ;  and  the 
Court  finally  yielded  to  their  combined  pressure.  A  royal 
message  was  sent  to  the  Tiers-Etat,  commanding  them  to  remit 
to  the  king  in  person  the  article  which  had  raised  such  a  storm 
of  opposition ; — an  order  which  amounted  to  its  suppression. 
The  chamber  obeyed ;  the  president,  at  the  head  of  a  depu- 
tation, waited  on  the  king  at  the  Louvre,  and  was  informed  that 
there  was  no  need  to  insert  the  article  in  their  official 
Cahier — that  the  king  took  it  as  already  received,  and  would 
return  an  answer  to  their  satisfaction.  When  the  president 
made  his  report  to  the  chamber,  a  tumultuous  debate  arose,  and 
was  protracted  for  three  days,  upon  the  question  of  acquiescence 
in  this  act  of  coercion.  A  numerous  minority  voted  for 
resistance ;  but  in  the  end  a  compromise  was  effected,  and  it 
was  agreed  that  the  article  should  not  be  maintained  textually 
in  the  Cahier,  but  that  its  intended  place  should  be  distinctly 
reserved,  with  a  statement  that  it  had  been  presented  by 
anticipation  to  the  king  in  person,  at  his  express  command,  and 
that  his  Majesty  had  promised  to  consider  it  favourably,  and  to 
reply  to  it  as  soon  as  possible. 

Such  was  the  termination  of  this  remarkable  dispute ;  which 
sets  in  a  very  instructive  light  the  prevailing  dispositions  and 
conflicting  pretensions  of  the  three  orders  in  the  State  at  this 


A.D.  1615.  SUMMARY  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  283 

somewhat  obscure  period  of  French  history.  The  want  of  con- 
fidence which  reigned  between  the  popular  representatives  and 
the  privileged  orders  ;  the  perplexing  position  of  the  clergy,  in 
consequence  of  the  exorbitant  claims  of  the  Court  of  Home ;  the 
determination  of  the  Parliament  to  repress  every  attempt  on 
the  part  of  a  foreign  ecclesiastical  power  to  interfere  in  the 
secular  concerns  of  the  kingdom ;  the  glaring  public  abuses, 
vehemently  attacked  by  one  party,  and  defended  with  equal 
pertinacity  by  another  from  motives  of  sordid  interest;  the 
incapacity  of  the  constitutional  legislature  to  exercise  a  wise, 
sustained,  effective  control  over  the  government  of  the  nation ; 
— these  are  truths  emphatically  attested  by  the  records  of  the 
States-General  of  1614 ;  and  the  lesson  was  no  doubt  clearly 
apprehended  by  sagacious  and  far-sighted  observers  at  the  time. 
With  such  fatal  defects  and  disqualifications,  it  is  not  wonderful 
that  history  has  but  a  sad  tale  to  tell  as  to  the  influence  of  the 
States-General  upon  the  destinies  of  France.  No  further 
explanation  is  needed  of  the  significant  fact,  that  for  more  than 
a  century  and  a  half  the  States  were  never  again  summoned 
for  the  discharge  of  their  functions ;  and  that  when  at  length 
they  were  convoked  in  1789,  their  proceedings  precipitated  the 
nation  into  the  abyss  of  anarchy  and  revolution. 

Pope  Paul  V.  despatched  briefs  to  the  Cardinal  de  Joyeuse, 
the  ecclesiastical  chamber,  and  that  of  the  nobles,  in  which, 
after  extolling  the  wisdom,  piety,  and  firmness  which  they 
had  displayed  in  resisting  the  late  dangerous  attack  on  the 
authority  of  the  Apostolic  See,  his  Holiness  warmly  expressed 
his  gratitude  for  the  service  they  had  rendered  to  the  Church 
ou  that  trying  occasion. 

After  lengthened  delays  and  manifold  remonstrances,  the 
Cahiers  of  the  three  chambers  were  finally  sent  in  on  the  23rd 
of  February,  1615 ;  on  which  day  the  session  was  closed.  The 
budget  of  the  clergy  consisted  of  302  articles,  twenty-four  of 
which  were  adopted  in  common  with  the  Chamber  of  Nobles. 
The  following  were  their  principal  recommendations : — That 
the  decrees  of  Trent  should  be  received  and  executed  in  France, 
as  before  mentioned ;  that  the  Catholic  religion  should  be 
re-established  in  Beam,  as  in  all  other  parts  of  his  Majesty's 
dominions  ;  that  the  decree  of  the  Council  of  Constance  on  the 
personal  security  of  kings  be  re-published  and  enforced ;  that 


284 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  VI. 


the  "  Cours  Souveraiues  "*  be  prohibited  from  taking  cognizance 
of  any  matter  affecting  the  faith  and  discipline  of  the  Church,  or 
the  authority  of  the  Pope  in  its  relation  to  the  Crown — all  such 
questions  being  reserved  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  king  in 
council.  They  desired  further,  the  appointment  of  a  royal 
commission  to  define  the  limits  within  which  secular  courts  may 
interfere  with  the  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  by  means  of  the 
"  appel  comme  d'abus ;"  an  authoritative  exposition  of  the 
much-contested  "  liberties  of  the  Grallican  Church  ;"  the  reform 
of  the  Universities  ;  and  certain  changes  in  the  composition  of 
the  Council  of  State.  A  special  article  was  moreover  inserted 
in  favour  of  the  Jesuits ;  in  recognition  of  whose  "  continual  and 
important  services  to  the  Church,"  the  king  was  requested  to 
license  them  to  teach  publicly  in  the  College  de  Clermont,  as 
well  as  in  all  provincial  towns  which  might  express  a  desire  for 
their  instructions.  A  last  attempt  was  made  to  obtain  the 
concurrence  of  the  Tiers-Etat  in  the  clauses  relating  to  the 
Council  of  Trent  and  the  Jesuits ;  but  without  success. 

At  the  audience  of  prorogation  at  the  Louvre,  the  Bishop  of 
Lu9on  (llichelieu)  made  his  appearance  as  orator  for  the 
clergy  ;  and  the  harangue  which  he  delivered  on  this  occasion, 
apparently  his  earliest  public  effort,  left  the  impression  on  his 
auditory  that  he  possessed  political  genius  of  first-rate  order, 
and  could  not  fail,  sooner  or  later,  to  attain  a  towering  ascen- 
dency both  in  Church  and  State.  It  is  curious  to  observe  that 
the  future  minister  grounded  this  discourse  upon  one  predomi- 
nant idea  or  principle — the  necessity  of  restoring  to  the  clergy 
the  active  share  in  the  management  of  public  affairs  which  they 
had  enjoyed  from  the  earliest  ages  of  civilization.  The  times, 
he  said,  when  his  Majesty's  predecessors  had  employed  the 
prelates  of  the  kingdom  in  the  concerns  of  State  were  those  in 
which  the  Gallican  Church  had  flourished  in  its  greatest  glory. 
Since  that  practice  had  been  discontinued,  the  clerical  order 
had  degenerated  to  such  an  extent  that  its  ancient  character 
was  no  longer  to  be  recognized.  It  seemed  now  to  be  imagined 
that,  because  bishops  were  consecrated  to  the  service  of  the 


*  The  "  cours  souveraines "  were 
the  Parliaments  of  Paris  and  the  pro- 
vinces, the  Grand  Conseil,  the  Cour 
des  Aides,  the  Chainbre  des  Comptes, 
and  the  Cour  des  Mon:iaies.  They 


were  so  named  because  they  were 
(  theoretically  and  constitutionally ) 
independent,  and  not  subject  to  the 
revision  of  any  superior  tribunal. 


A.D.  1615.  SPEECH  OF  RICHELIEU.  285 

King  of  kings,  they  were  incapable  of  rendering  effective 
service  to  their  earthly  sovereign.  "More  than  this,"  con- 
tinued the  prelate,  "  although  the  clergy  offer  to  their  sovereign 
what  every  other.  Christian  offers  to  God,  namely,  the  tenth 
part  of  their  property,  attempts  are  constantly  made  to  deprive 
them  of  all  the  rest,  and  that  in  favour  of  persons  who  cannot 
lawfully  possess  it,  being  either  laymen  or  avovsed  separatists 
from  the  Church.  Is  it  not  plainly  contrary  to  justice  to  give 
to  the  world  that  which  belongs  to  God,  instead  of  sacrificing 
to  God  that  which  appertains  to  the  world?  It  may  seem 
perhaps  but  a  small  thing  to  present  a  layman  or  a  sectary  to 
an  abbey,  but  when  it  is  considered  that  the  patronage  of  the 
greater  part  of  the  parochial  cures  in  France  is  annexed  to 
the  abbeys,  it  becomes  clear  that  this  is  the  principal  cause  of 
the  corruptions  and  disorders  which  afflict  the  Church.  A  mere 
courtier  is  not  likely  to  nominate  devout  and  holy  pastors,  and 
an  enemy  to  our  faith  will  be  only  too  glad  to  do  it  an  injury 
by  preferring  men  of  ignorant  minds  and  disreputable  life. 
Sire,  this  is  a  grave  abuse ;  an  abuse  that  entails  the  ruin  of 
innumerable  souls,  for  the  loss  of  whom  you  yourself  must  one 
day  answer  before  the  tribunal  of  God."  Proceeding  next  to 
touch  on  the  "appels  comme  d'abus,"  Richelieu  cites  the 
canons  of  Councils,  the  testimonies  of  primitive  Fathers,  and 
the  decrees  of  Christian  emperors,  such  as  Constantine  and 
Charlemagne,  to  prove  that  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  cannot 
lawfully  be  exercised  by  any  but  ecclesiastical  judges.  "  All 
good  sovereigns,"  he  urged,  "  have  been  scrupulously  careful  to 
maintain  the  spouse  of  Christ  in  the  enjoyment  of  her  proper 
authority ;  and  your  Majesty  will  observe  that  this  is  a  duty 
incumbent  upon  monarchs,  not  only  as  a  point  of  conscience, 
but  also  for  their  personal  interests ;  since  it  is  certain  that  a 
prince  cannot  more  effectually  teach  his  subjects  to  despise 
his  own  authority,  than  by  permitting  them  to  encroach  upon 
that  of  God,  from  whom  he  holds  his  crown."  * 

After  an  earnest  appeal  on  behalf  of  the  publication  of  the 
Council  of  Trent,  Richelieu  concludes  by  eulogising  the  young 
king's  wisdom  in  delegating  the  chief  authority  of  government 
to  the  queen-mother.  He  exhorts  him  to  persevere  in  this  line 


*  Mfmoires  du  Clerge  de  France,  torn.  xiii.  p.  395  et  seqq. 


286  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VI. 

of  policy,  and  to  "add  to  the  title  of  Mother  of  the  King,  that 
of  Mother  of  the  Kingdom."  This  was  a  dexterous  stroke 
for  the  advancement  of  his  own  fortunes.  Attaching  himself 
to  the  party  of  Mary  de  Medici  and  the  Marechal  d'Ancre, 
Richelieu  now  rose  rapidly  to  power.  His  first  court  appoint- 
ment was  that  of  private  chaplain  to  the  young  queen  consort, 
Anne  of  Austria.  In  November,  1616,  he  was  named  a  member 
of  the  Council  of  State,  and  Secretary  of  State  for  War  and 
Foreign  Affairs. 

Disappointed  on  this,  as  on  so  many  former  occasions,  of 
obtaining  satisfaction  from  the  Government  with  'regard  to  the 
publication  of  the  Tridentine  decrees,  the  clergy  resolved  to 
take  measures  to  that  end  among  themselves,  so  far  as  it  lay  in 
their  power,  independently  of  the  civil  authority.  The  prelates 
held  a  meeting  immediately  after  the  dismissal  of  the  States- 
General,  and  entered  into  a  solemn  engagement  to  observe  the 
canons  and  ordinances  of  the  Council,  and  to  enforce  their 
execution  to  the  utmost  of  their  power  throughout  their 
dioceses.  It  was  further  agreed  that  provincial  Councils  and 
diocesan  synods  should  be  convoked  during  the  year  ensuing, 
in  order  that  the  measure  might  be  adopted  throughout  the 
kingdom  in  due  canonical  form.  The  episcopal  manifesto  bore 
the  signatures  of  three  cardinals  (La  Rochefoucauld,  Du  Perron, 
and  De  Gondi),  seven  archbishops,  forty-five  bishops,  and  thirty 
other  dignitaries.  The  step,  however,  was  not  allowed  to  pass 
unchallenged  by  the  watchful  guardians  of  the  civil  jurisdiction. 
An  order  was  issued  by  the  Prevot  of  Paris,*  forbidding  all 
ecclesiastics  to  make  publication  of  the  Tridentine  decrees  as 
if  officially  received,  or  to  introduce  any  change  whatever  in 
matters  of  church  discipline  without  the  king's  permission,  under 
pain  of  forfeiting  their  temporalities.  The  Huguenots  also 
raised  a  violent  clamour  against'  the  publication  of  the  Council ; 
and  the  prince  of  Conde,  who  had  lately  allied  himself  with 
them  in  consequence  of  a  fresh  misunderstanding  with  the 
court,  expressly  stipulated,  in  making  terms  with  the  Govern- 
ment, that  this  demand  of  the  bishops  should  not  be  carried  into 


*  The  Prevot  of  Paris  was  the  head 
of  the  metropolitan  police,  his  office 
answering  very  nearly  to  that  of  the 


He  presided  as  judge  in  a  court  which 
held  its  sittings  at  the  Chatelet.  His 
jurisdiction  comprised  the  city  of  Paris 


'  Prefet  de  Police  "  of  modem  times.        and  the  "  Isle  de  Fiance." 


A.t>.  1616. 


ANTONIO  DE  DOMINIS. 


287 


effect.  By  an  article  of  the  treaty  of  Loudun  (May  3,  1616), 
the  king  declared  that  no  steps  had  been  taken  by  authority  for 
the  recognition  of  the  Council ;  and  that  it  would  remain,  with 
regard  to  France,  in  the  same  position  as  heretofore.*  Under 
these  circumstances,  the  prelates  judged  it  inexpedient  to  hold 
the  provincial  Councils  which  had  been  agreed  upon  at  the 
meeting  at  Paris,  since  a  pretext  might  thus  have  been  afforded 
for  fresh  disturbances  on  the  part  of  the  separatists  and  the 
disaffected  princes.  Cardinal  de  la  Rochefoucauld,  however, 
assembled  his  clergy  at  a  diocesan  synod  at  Senlis  in  October, 
1620,  when  it  was  resolved  that  the  Council  should  be  received 
and  observed  in  that  diocese,  not  only  touching  matters  of  faith, 
but  also  in  its  decrees  concerning  the  Sacraments  of  orders, 
penance,  and  marriage,  the  residence  of  the  clergy,  the  rules  of 
admission  into  conventual  houses,  and  other  important  points 
of  discipline.  Similar  measures  were  adopted  by  a  provincial 
council  held  at  Bordeaux  under  the  presidency  of  Cardinal  de 
Sourdis  in  1624 ;  and  regulations  of  the  same  nature  were  made 
by  several  other  bishops  for  the  guidance  of  their  own  clergy. 
In  this  manner  the  greater  part  of  the  Tridentine  constitutions 
were  gradually  received,  in  an  indirect  and  informal  way ;  but 
every  effort  to  get  the  decrees  incorporated  with  the  body  of 
national  statute  law  was  firmly  and  successfully  resisted  by  the 
civil  power. 

The  slumbering  controversy  concerning  the  government  of 
the  Church  and  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope  was  revived  in  1617 
by  the  appearance  of  a  work  by  Antonio  de  Dominis,  Arch- 
bishop of  Spalatro,  the  first  volume  of  which  was  published  that 
year  in  London. 

De  Dominis  was  a  man  of  great  natural  capacity,  and, 
having  studied  for  many  years  in  early  life  under  the  Jesuits, 
had  acquired  a  considerable  store  of  learning.  His  temper  of 
mind,  however,  was  singularly  vacillating ;  he  forsook  the 
Jesuits,  made  interest  for  preferment  in  the  Church,  and 
obtained  the  archbishopric  of  Spalatro,  the  capital  of  Dalmatia. 
lie  now  became  involved  in  the  affair  of  the  Interdict  of 


*  The  famous  article  of  the  Tiers- 
Etat  on  the  independence  of  the  Crown 
was  at  first  inserted  as  one  of  the 
conditions  of  this  treaty ;  but  Conde 
was  induced  to  abandon  it  at  the 


urgent  instance  of  the  Capucin  father 
Joseph.  See  the  details  of  this  intrigue 
in  the  Vie  du  Pere  Josef,  in  Arch.  Cur. 
de  FHist.  de  France,  2  Serie,  torn.  iv. 


288  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VI. 

Venice :  and  stood  forward  conspicuously  in  defence  of  the 
Republic  against  the  oppression  of  the  Court  of  Rome.  The 
Inquisition  naturally  passed  a  sentence  of  condemnation  on  his 
writings :  and  this  censure  irritated  and  disgusted  the  arch- 
bishop to  such  a  degree  that  he  quitted  his  see  and  retired  into 
England,  as  a  place  of  refuge  where  he  might  publish  his 
sentiments  without  fear  of  persecution.  James  I.,  attracted 
by  his  professions  of  admiration  for  the  Anglican  Church,  and 
credulously  accepting  him  as  a  genuine  convert  from  the  errors 
of  Rome,  showed  him  flattering  attentions,  and  preferred  him  to 
the  Mastership  of  the  Savoy  and  the  Deanery  of  Windsor. 
Thus  protected,  De  Dominis  put  forth  his  treatise  'De 
Republics,  Ecclesiastioa,'  which  is  based  mainly  on  the  same 
principles  which  had  been  so  powerfully  advocated  by  the  two 
Barclays  and  Edmond  Richer,  but  at  the  same  time  differs  from 
them  in  some  notable  particulars.  De  Dominis  entirely  denies 
the  supremacy  of  the  Roman  Pontiff  as  the  vicar  of  Jesus 
Christ ;  according  to  him,  the  Church  is  not  a  monarchy  but  an 
oligarchy, — the  authority  of  government  being  exercised  co- 
ordinately  by  all  members  of  the  episcopate.  And  even  the 
bishops  do  not  derive  from  their  consecration  any  direct  and 
exclusive  authority  from  God ;  consecration  is  no  more  than  a 
ceremony  through  which  they  become  qualified  to  exercise 
ministerially  that  power  which  is  vested  of  right  in  the  whole 
Christian  society,  laity  as  well  as  clergy.  From  these  positions 
he  argues  that  the  Papacy,  with  all  its  lofty  prerogatives,  is 
simply  anti-Catholic  and  antichristian.  Nicolas  Isambert, 
syndic  of  the  Sorbonne,  impeached  the  book  before  the  Faculty 
at  Paris  on  the  30th  of  October,  pointing  out  its  peculiarly 
insidious  and  dangerous  tendency,  inasmuch  as  the  author  gave 
out  that  his  views  were  identical  with  those  maintained  by  the 
University  of  Paris.  After  a  series  of  animated  debates,  a  list 
of  propositions  extracted  from  the  work  was  condemned  by  a 
majority  of  the  doctors;  but  a  strong  minority  protested  against 
the  decision.  The  ex-syndic  Richer  was  earnestly  entreated  by 
his  friends  to  come  forth  on  this  occasion  from  his  retirement, 
and,  by  participating  in  the  vote  of  his  colleagues,  to  refute  the 
imputations  of  heterodoxy  under  which  he  had  laboured  for 
the  last  five  years.  He  yielded  only  so  far  as  to  draw  up  some 
notes  upon  the  sentence  of  the  Sorbonne  when  it  \vas  published, 


A.n.  1617.  ANTONIO  DE  DOMINIS.  289 

from  which  it  appeared  that  he  could  but  partially  concur  in 
the  conclusions  of  his  brethren  on  the  questions  in  debate. 
The  second  proposition  of  De  Dominis,  for  instance,  which 
asserted  that  the  Church  possesses  no  secular  jurisdiction,  no 
coercive  power  or  right  of  external  constraint,  was  pronounced 
by  the  doctors  heretical,  subversive  of  hierarchical  authority, 
and  tending  to  produce  confusion  in  the  Church.  Richer  was 
unable  to  accept  this  language,  which  he  considered  over- 
strained and  unjustifiable, — a  feeling  which  was  strongly  shared 
by  the  Advocate-General  Servin. 

The  subsequent  career  of  De  Dominis  was  painfully  ignoble 
and  humiliating.  After  residing  several  years  in  England,  he 
seems  to  have  grown  dissatisfied  with  the  Reformed  com- 
munion ;  and,  through  the  medium  of  the  Spanish  ambassador 
in  London,  he  effected  a  reconciliation  with  the  See  of  Rome. 
Being  thereupon  deprived  of  his  English  preferments,  he 
returned  to  the  continent ;  and,  with  his  characteristic  in- 
constancy, began  to  write  in  a  violent  strain  against  the  Church 
which  had  sheltered  and  befriended  him  in  the  hour  of 
adversity.  But  his  turbulent  spirit  was  incapable  of  repose. 
On  reaching  Rome  he  retracted  in  unqualified  terms  the  errors 
and  mistaken  reasonings  with  which  he  confessed  that  his  works 
abounded,  and  professed  abject  submission  to  the  judgment 
of  the  supreme  Pontiff.  Before  a  year  had  passed,  it  was 
discovered,  from  an  intercepted  correspondence  with  friends  in 
England,  that  he  already  repented  of  his  repentance,  and  was 
engaged  in  intrigues  contrary  to  the  Papal  interests.  Upon  this 
he  was  arrested  and  imprisoned  in  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo, 
where  within  a  very  brief  space  he  once  more  declared  himself  a 
convert  to  the  Romish  faith.  He  was  not,  however,  restored  to 
liberty,  but  died  in  confinement,  after  receiving  the  Sacraments 
of  the  Church,  in  December,  1625.  To  complete  this  grotesque 
history,  it  must  be  mentioned  that  after  death  the  unfortunate 
De  Dominis  was  treated  as  a  relapsed  heretic,  in  which  state, 
notwithstanding  his  affected  penitence,  he  was  deemed  to  have 
expired.  His  corpse  was  publicly  burned  to  ashes,  and  his 
works  shared  the  same  fate.* 


*  Ellics-Dnpin,  Hist,  fades,  du  XVII.  Siecle.     D'Avrigny,  M(fm.   Chronnlog. 
torn.  i.  p.  250. 


VOL.    I. 


290  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VII. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

OP  all  the  recommendations  of  the  clergy  at  the  States-General 
of  1615,  only  two  were  carried  into  effect  by  the  Crown.  These 
were  the  reinstatement  of  the  Jesuits  as  public  teachers,  and  the 
restoration  of  the  Church  establishment  in  Beam.  By  a  royal 
Ordounance  of  February  15,  1618,  the  Jesuit  fathers  were 
authorized  to  re-open  their  college  at  Paris  (the  College  de 
Clermont)  for  the  delivery  of  lectures  in  the  sciences  and  other 
branches  of  knowledge;  and  the  Parliament  was  forbidden  to 
entertain  any  appeal  against  this  measure.  The  University 
accordingly  forbore  to  appeal;  but  nevertheless  proceeded  to 
draw  up  a  series  of  stringent  regulations  with  a  view  to  exclude 
the  Jesuits  from  degrees  and  other  privileges  of  the  corporation. 
These  provisions  were  summarily  cancelled  by  an  order  of  the 
Council  of  State. 

Father  Cotton,  who  ever  since  the  restoration  of  the  Jesuits 
had  occupied  the  post  of  royal  confessor,  and  had  exercised  a 
weighty  influence  both  political  and  ecclesiastical,  was  removed 
from  office  in  1617,  on  the  occasion  of  the  rupture  between 
Louis  and  the  Queen  Mother.  His  place  was  supplied  by 
another  member  of  the  order,  Father  Arnoux,  a  man  of  at  least 
equal  ability,  but  of  a  bigoted  and  violent  temper,  who,  in  con- 
junction with  the  new  favourite  De  Luynes,  soon  acquired  a 
paramount  ascendency  over  the  feeble  mind  of  Louis.  Urged 
by  their  importunities,  the  king  determined,  in  the  summer  of 
1617,  on  taking  immediate  steps  for  the  re-establishment  of  the 
Catholic  religion  in  the  Principality  of  Be'am,  and  restoring  to 
the  Church  the  property  which  had  been  confiscated  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Calvinists  by  Jeanne  d'Albret  some  fifty  years 
before.*  This  point  had  been  strenuously  insisted  on  by  the 
clergy  ever  since  the  promulgation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes, 
of  which  indeed  it  formed  one  of  the  principal  stipulations. 


By  an  edict  of  Octoljer  31,  1571, 


A.D.  1617.          LOUIS  AND  THE  STATES  OF  BEARN.  291 

Henry  IV.  had  made  several  attempts  to  satisfy  them ;  *  but  he 
was  embarrassed  by  habitual  respect  for  the  "  fors,"  t  or  consti- 
tutional liberties,  of  his  native  country,  by  one  of  which  it 
was  unlawful  for  the  sovereign  to  annul  anything  that  had 
once  been  enacted  by  the  States  of  Beam.  Louis  XIII.  was 
very  differently  situated  from  his  father,  and  entertained  no 
such  scruples.  He  was  deeply  attache  1  to  the  Catholic  faith ; 
and  the  daily  representations  made  to  him  by  those  nearest  his 
person  convinced  him  that  it  was  his  duty  no  longer  to  tolerate 
the  existing  state  of  things  in  that  part  of  his  dominions.  An 
Order  of  Council,  dated  June  25, 1617,  directed  that  the  exercise 
of  the  Catholic,  Apostolic,  and  Eoman  religion  should  be  resumed 
and  maintained  throughout  the  province  of  Beam,  and  that  the 
Catholic  clergy  should  be  put  into  possession  of  the  tempo- 
ralities ;  due  provision  being  made  at  the  same  time  for  the 
ejected  Protestant  ministers,  by  a  grant  from  the  revenues  of 
the  Crown  equal  in  amount  to  the  emoluments  which  they 
surrendered.  This  mandate  was  received  by  the  Bearnois  with 
a  general  outburst  of  indignant  opposition.  The  States  assembled 
hastily,  and  declared  that  their  immemorial  rights  and  privileges 
had  been  violated.  The  Huguenots  remonstrated  at  a  great 
meeting  of  their  preachers  and  deputies  at  Orthez ;  the  Conseil 
souverain  of  Pau  declined  to  register  the  edict ;  and  such  was 
the  agitation  that  prevailed,  that  rebellion  and  civil  war  once 
more  appeared  imminent.  De  Luynes  and  the  ultra-catholic 
party  in  the  Council  urged  Louis  to  proceed  to  extremities 
against  the  exasperated  Protestants;  but  the  course  of  events 
in  other  quarters  determined  him  for  the  present  to  an  opposite 
policy.  The  movements  of  the  Queen  Mother  Mary  de  Medici, 
who  had  been  exiled  from  court  at  the  time  of  the  assassination 
of  the  Marechal  d'Ancre  in  1617,  were  such  as  to  create  con- 
siderable anxiety.  The  disaffected  grandees — the  Dukes  of 
Epernon,  Guise,  and  Mayenne,  the  Marechal  de  Bouillon,  and 
others — had  flocked  around  her  in  her  retirement  at  Blois,  and 
were  intriguing  with  eager  animosity  against  the  government. 


*  By  an  edict  of  1599  Henry  esta-  j    deem  the  ancient  estates  belonging  to 

blished  in   some  measure  a  Catholic  I    their  sees. 

organization  in  Beam,  appointing  !  f  The  same  word  with  the  well- 
bishops  at  Lescar  and  Oleron,  with  known  "  fueros  "  of  the  Basque  pro- 
lixcd  .salaries,  and  permission  to  re-  vinoos  of  Spain. 

u  2 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VII. 

On  the  night  of  the  22nd  of  February,  1619,  Mary  contrived, 
with  the  assistance  of  Epernon,  to  escape  from  the  chateau  of 
Blois,  and  fled  to  Angouleme,*  where,  supported  by  the  factious 
nobles  and  their  retainers,  she  occupied  a  formidable  position. 
In  this  posture  of  affairs  the  Court  deemed  it  wiser  to  postpone 
coercive  measures  against  the  Protestants  of  Beam ;  the  more 
so,  inasmuch  as  the  Huguenot  leaders  forbore  at  this  conjuncture 
to  embarrass  the  Government  by  openly  taking  part  with  the 
malcontents  of  Angouleme.  Accordingly  they  received  per- 
mission to  hold  a  general  assembly  of  their  co-religionists  at 
Loudun,  in  September  of  this  year,  for  the  purpose  of  preparing 
and  presenting  to  the  Crown  a  formal  statement  of  their  griev- 
ances. This  synod,  however,  proved  even  more  excited  and 
turbulent  than  that  at  Orthez.  It  was  demanded  of  the  king, 
as  a  preliminary  article  to  the  general  cahier,  that  the  edict  of 
restitution  should  be  unconditionally  withdrawn.  So  critical 
was  the  state  of  parties,  that  the  Government  durst  not  return  a 
direct  negative  to  this  requisition ;  and,  after  much  temporising 
and  hesitation,  a  sort  of  compromise  was  entered  into  with  the 
Protestant  deputies  at  Loudun,  through  the  intervention  of  the 
Prince  de  Conde  and  the  Due  de  Lesdiguieres.  In  the  mean 
time  strenuous  efforts  were  made  to  bring  about  a  good  under- 
standing between  Louis  and  his  mother,  and  thus  to  frustrate 
the  cabals  of  her  party.  Cardinal  de  Berulle,  who  among  his 
other  talents  was  known  to  be  a  skilful  diplomatist,  was  despatched 
to  Angouleme  to  ascertain  the  queen's  dispositions,  and  pave  the 
way  towards  a  reconciliation.  Recourse  was  also  had  to  the 
Bishop  of  Lucon,|  who  was  recalled  from  his  banishment  at 
Avignon  and  sent  on  the  same  errand  to  the  temporary  residence 
of  his  royal  mistress.  With  considerable  difficulty  the  terms  of 
accommodation  were  at  length  agreed  on.  Mary  recovered  her 
independence,  and  obtained  for  herself  the  government  of  Anjou, 
together  with  lavish  promises  of  honours  and  appointments  for 
her  friends ;  after  which  an  interview  took  place  between  the 
king  and  his  mother  at  Tours,  and  peace  was  apparently  sealed. 


*  The  Duke  of  Epernon  was   Go-  !    Jieu.      Father  Joseph  was  one  of  the 

vernor  of  the  province  of  Angoumois.  j    chief  agents  in  this  negotiation  with 

f  At  the  suggestion  of  the  Capuchin  the  queen.     (Arch.  Cur.  de  I' Hist,  de 

monk    Joseph    du    Trerablay.      This  France,  2  Serie,  torn,  iv.) 

service  was  never  forgotten  bv  Riche-  • 


A.D.  1620.  LOUIS  XIII.  IN  BEARN. 

But  the  bad  faith  of  De  Luynes,  who  neglected  to  fulfil  several 
of  the  most  important  stipulations  of  the  treaty,  soon  produced 
a  fresh  train  of  discontents ;  and  a  far  more  alarming  confederacy 
was  organized,  which  the  Government  found  itself  compelled  to 
encounter  by  force.  The  hostilities  were  of  brief  duration,  and 
in  August,  1620,  the  insurgents  were  reduced  to  submission. 
The  conditions  granted  to  them  were  nearly  identical  with  those 
of  the  year  preceding;  but  Richelieu  succeeded  in  carrying 
certain  points  of  special  advantage  to  himself,  one  of  them  being 
a  promise  from  the  king  to  recommend  him  to  the  Pope  for 
promotion  to  the  rank  of  Cardinal. 

Matters  being  thus  pacifically  settled  in  the  North,  Louis 
turned  his  attention  to  the  subjugation  of  the  refractory  Bearnais. 
He  had  now  a  powerful  body  of  troops  under  arms ;  with  these 
he  marched  to  Bordeaux,  and  for  the  last  time  summoned  the 
authorities  at  Pau  to  register  the  edict  of  "main-levee"  in 
favour  of  the  Catholic  clergy.  They  remained  obstinate  in 
their  refusal ;  whereupon  the  king,  exclaiming,  "  II  faut  aller  a 
eux!"  took  the  road  to  Beam  at  the  head  of  his  army.  At 
these  tidings  the  terrified  magistrates  hastily  registered  the 
edict ;  but  it  was  now  too  late.  Louis  arrived  next  day  within 
sight  of  Pau.  His  attendants  desired  instructions  as  to  the  cere- 
monial to  be  observed  on  his  entrance ;  he  replied  that  he  would 
proceed  first  of  all  to  the  church,  if  there  were  any  in  the  place, 
and  if  not,  he  would  make  his  entry  without  any  pomp  or  state 
at  all,  since  it  would  ill  become  him  to  receive  the  honours  of 
royalty  in  a  spot  where  he  had  no  means  of  offering  his  homage 
to  God,  from  whom  he  held  his  dominions.*  On  the  15th  of 
October,  1620,  Louis  traversed  the  streets  of  Pau  and  took  up 
his  quarters  at  the  ancient  chateau,  amid  the  sullen  silence  of 
the  inhabitants.  On  the  17th  he  repaired  to  Navarreins,  the 
strongest  fortress  in  the  province,  where  he  superseded  the  Pro- 
testant governor  and  replaced  him  by  a  Catholic ;  he  also  caused 
mass  to  be  celebrated  in  his  presence,  for  the  first  time  since 
the  Catholic  ritual  had  been  abolished  half  a  century  before. 
Returning  next  day  to  Pau,  Louis  presided  personally  at  the 
execution  of  his  edicts  for  the  re-establishment  of  the  Church 
as  it  existed  before  the  so-called  Reformation.  The  churches 


Mercure  Franfoit>,  torn.  vi.  p.  o50. 


294  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VII. 

were  restored  to  the  Catholics ;  the  bishops  and  abbots  of  Beam 
recovered  their  ancient  privileges,  their  seats  in  the  provincial 
legislature,  their  lands  and  other  endowments;  the  alienated 
tithes  were  resumed  by  the  parochial  clergy.  Finally,  the 
"pays  souverain"  of  B^arn,  together  with  its  dependencies  of 
Basse  Navarre,  Andorre,  and  Donezan,  were  declared  for  ever 
re-united  and  incorporated  with  the  crown  and  royal  "  domaine" 
of  France.  In  consequence  of  this  annexation,  a  new  provincial 
parliament  was  instituted  at  Pau,  of  which  Pierre  de  Marca, 
afterwards  the  eminent  controversialist  and  Archbishop  of 
Toulouse,  was  appointed  the  first  President.  De  Marca,  though 
at  this  time  a  young  man  of  only  six-and-twenty,  was  already 
thoroughly  well  versed  in  ecclesiastical  law  and  Catholic  an- 
tiquity. He  now  eagerly  engaged  in  conferences  with  the  Pro- 
testants of  Beam,  and  succeeded  in  effecting  some  remarkable 
conversions  to  the  Church.  The  exertions  of  Father  Joseph 
were  rewarded  by  similar  results.  Father  Cotton,  too,  was 
encouraged  by  the  late  revolution  of  affairs  to  undertake  a 
journey  to  Pau,  where  he  established  a  Jesuit  college,  and  was 
instrumental  in  many  other  measures  tending  to  the  strengthen- 
ing and  consolidation  of  Catholic  interests. 

The  vigorous  exhibition  of  despotic  authority  in  the  case 
of  Beam  threw  the  Protestants  throughout  the  kingdom  into 
a  state  of  extraordinary  irritation.  A  general  assembly  was 
convoked  at  La  Eochelle,  the  capital  of  French  Calvinism,  in 
December,  1620,  contrary  to  the  commands  of  the  king,  and 
even  to  the  advice  of  Duplessis-Mornay,  and  other  chiefs  of 
the  party.  Inflammatory  harangues  were  made,  and  violent 
counsels  prevailed.  A  memorial  of  grievances  was  adopted, 
which  the  king  refused  to  receive  unless  the  synod  were  first 
dissolved ;  the  deputies,  on  their  part,  protested  that  they  would 
not  separate  until  they  had  obtained  satisfaction.  Convinced, 
by  the  concurrence  of  various  causes,  that  another  crisis  was  at 
hand  in  their  struggle  with  the  Ancient  Church,  the  Eeformers 
now  made  preparations  for  an  armed  insurrection.  The  assembly 
of  La  Rochelle  declared  itself  en  permanence,  and  issued  a  mani- 
festo by  which  the  whole  country  was  parcelled  out  into  eight 
circles  or  military  governments.  These  were  placed  under  the 
command  of  the  great  Huguenot  nobles — the  dukes  of  Kohan, 
Soubise,  La  Tremoille,  and  Chatillon,  the  Marquis  de  la  Force, 


A.D.  1621.          INSURRECTION  OF  THE  HUGUENOTS.  295 

and  the  veteran  Marshal  Lesdiguieres  ;  the  direction  of  the 
whole  being  entrusted  to  the  Duke  of  Bouillon.  But  this 
organization  was  more  formidable  on  paper  than  in  reality ; 
much  division  of  opinion  existed  among  the  nominal  com- 
manders as  to  the  wisdom  and  policy  of  the  hostile  movement. 
Bouillon  declined  the  post  of  generalissimo,  and  remained 
neutral  in  his  fortress  of  Sedan.  Lesdiguieres,  who  was  already 
more  than  half  a  Catholic,  not  only  refused  his  services  to  the 
Huguenots,  but  accepted  a  principal  command  in  the  royal 
army.  The  Duke  of  La  Tremoille,  a  relative  of  Bouillon, 
followed  the  example  of  his  uncle;  —  a  course  which  was 
expressly  recommended  to  him,  according  to  one  account,  by 
Duplessis-Mornay  himself.*  In  short,  it  is  manifest  that  the 
enterprise  of  the  Protestants  on  this  occasion  was  unwise,  pre- 
cipitate, and  unjustifiable.  Even  admitting  that  they  had  good 
ground  for  complaining  of  systematic  infractions  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes,  and  other  acts  of  oppression,  their  own  interests  would 
have  been  far  better  served  at  this  moment  by  patience  and 
moderation  than  by  breaking  out  into  open  revolt.  Stimulated 
by  the  example  of  their  brethren  in  Germany,  who,  under 
the  leadership  of  the  Elector  Palatine,  were  desperately 
braving  the  whole  strength  of  the  Empire,  the  Huguenots 
assumed  an  attitude  which  almost  compelled  Louis  to  proceed 
to  extremities  against  them  as  rebels  and  traitors.  This  was 
playing  the  game  of  their  enemies.  The  Jesuits,  and  other 
zealots  who  possessed  the  ear  of  Louis,  easily  persuaded  him 
that  the  time  was  come  when  he  must  vindicate  his  authority, 
once  for  all,  against  those  who  thus  made  religion  a  stalking- 
horse  for  disloyalty  and  armed  rebellion.  In  point  of  fact,  both 
the  rising  of  the  Huguenots,  and  the  decisive  measures  of  the 
court  for  its  suppression,  resulted  from  the  manoeuvres  of  that 
great  party  which  was  labouring,  at  any  cost,  and  often  by 
indefensible  means,  to  restore  the  supremacy  of  the  Catholic 
Church  throughout  Europe. 

As  I  do  not  profess  to  write  the  history  of  the  Calvinist 
Separatists,  nor  to  describe  secular  transactions  except  so  far  as 
they  directly  bear  upon  the  fortunes  of  the  Church,  the  reader 
will  not  expect  from  me  more  than  a  very  slight  outline  of  the 


*  Le  Vassor,  Hist,  de  Louis  XIIL,  Liv.  xvii. 


21)6  THE  GALL1CAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VII. 

events  of  the  two  campaigns  of  Louis  XIII.  in  the  war  of  1621 
and  1622. 

The  king  set  out  from  Fontainebleau  on  the  29th  of  April, 
1621,  attended  by  the  Due  de  Luynes,  who  had  just  pre- 
viously been  advanced  to  the  dignity  of  Constable  of  France. 
His  march  towards  the  disturbed  districts  was  preceded  by  a 
proclamation,  in  which  he  assured  the  Huguenots  that  he  was 
fully  resolved  to  observe  all  the  edicts  issued  in  their  favour 
both  by  his  father  and  himself,  and  declared  that,  while 
rebels  with  arms  in  their  hands  would  henceforth  be  treated 
as  such,  he  took  specially  under  his  royal  protection  all  of 
the  reformed  persuasion  who  should  remain  faithful  in  their 
allegiance  to  their  sovereign.  This  was  language  well  cal- 
culated to  increase  the  symptoms  of  disunion  which  had 
already  begun  to  manifest  themselves  among  the  ranks  of  the 
insurgents. 

The  first  Huguenot  town  of  which  Louis  took  possession  was 
Saumur,  where  Duplessis-Mornay,  who  had  held  the  post  of 
governor  for  upwards  of  thirty  years,  was  deprived  of  his  com- 
mand under  a  promise  to  restore  it  within  three  months,  which 
was  never  fulfilled.  The  Duke  of  Soubise  retired  before  the 
royal  army,  and  the  districts  bordering  on  the  Loire,  together 
with  the  whole  of  Poitou,  submitted  without  resistance.  St. 
Jean  d'Angely  was  taken  after  a  siege  of  three  weeks,  and 
lenient  terms  were  granted  to  the  inhabitants ;  the  fortifica- 
tions, however,  were  dismantled,  and  the  town  forfeited  its 
municipal  charter  and  other  privileges.  The  towns  of  Guienne 
were  reduced  with  little  difficulty,  with  the  exception  of  Cle"rac 
on  the  Lot,  which  was  vigorously  defended  for  twelve  days. 
Here  Louis  ordered  the  public  execution  of  four  Protestants, 
one  of  them  a  minister,  who  had  distinguished  themselves  by 
fomenting  the  revolt.  But,  on  proceeding  to  lay  siege  to 
Montauban,  the  principal  fortress  of  the  Huguenots  in  the 
south,  the  royal  forces  experienced  a  decided  check.  The  place 
was  admirably  defended  by  the  Marquis  de  la  Force  and  the 
Duke  of  Kohan,  and  three  months  were  consumed  in  ineffectual 
efforts  to  subdue  it.*  At  length  the  ablest  officers  among  the 


*  The  noted  Huguenot  minister  Chamier,  the  same  who  was  employed  in 
drawing  up  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  contributed  greatly  to  the  successful  resistance 


A.u.  1021.      DEFEAT  OF  LOUIS  BEFORE  MONTAUBAN.  297 

royalists  pronounced  it  hopeless  to  persist,  and  Louis  was  com- 
pelled ignominiously  to  raise  the  siege.  The  Constable  de 
Luynes,  to  whose  incompetence  this  misfortune  was  in  great 
measure  attributed,  shortly  afterwards  fell  ill  of  a  contagious 
disorder  prevalent  in  the  camp,  which  carried  him  off  in  a  few 
days.  The  campaign  now  terminated,  and  the  king  returned  to 
Paris  in  January. 

The  repulse  of  the  royal  arms  before  Montauban  had  the 
natural  effect  of  encouraging  the  hopes  and  inflaming  the  fana- 
tical ardour  of  the  Huguenots.  A  general  rising  followed  in 
Languedoc,  the  Cevennes,  and  Provence,  and  was  marked  by 
outrageous  excesses  on  the  part  of  the  sectaries  against  the 
dominant  religion.  At  Montpellier,  the  cathedral  and  every 
other  Catholic  church  in  the  city  was  pillaged  and  destroyed ; 
the  clergy  were  driven  away  with  violence  and  insult,  and 
the  excellent  bishop,  Pierre  Fenouillet,  made  his  escape  at  the 
imminent  peril  of  his  life.  Similar  acts  of  profanation  were 
perpetrated  throughout  the  district ;  many  of  the  most  beautiful 
specimens  of  the  architectural  taste  of  the  middle  ages  perished 
under  the  hands  of  these  ruthless  Reformers. 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1622  the  Rochellois  fitted  out  a 
considerable  fleet  of  privateers,  with  which  they  blockaded 
the  western  coast,  and  the  embouchures  of  the  Loire  and  the 
Gironde,  and  committed  great  depredations  on  maritime  com- 
merce. The  Duke  of  Soubise,  at  the  same  time,  recommenced 
warlike  operations  in  Poitou,  and  overran  the  country  up  to  the 
gates  of  Nantes.  On  the  20th  of  March,  1622,  the  king  once 
more  took  the  field,  and  marched  against  Soubise.  He  attacked 
him  at  the  He  de  Eie  on  the  15th  of  April,  and  inflicted  on  him 
a  total  and  decisive  defeat,  his  loss  amounting  to  upwards  of 
four  thousand  men.  Flushed  with  victory,  Louis  now  traversed 
without  resistance  the  whole  of  Poitou  and  Saintonge,  and,  on 
entering  Guienne,  received  the  submission  of  two  of  the  most 
distinguished  Huguenot  generals — the  Marquises  of  La  Force 
and  Chatillon.  They  were  not  only  pardoned  unconditionally, 
but  were  presented  besides  with  the  baton  of  marshal.  Some 
examples  of  severe  reprisal  were  made,  however,  in  the  course 


of  Montauban.    He  was  killed  by  a  cannon-shot  on  the  ramparts  of  the  town 
while  iii  the  act  of  encouraging  the  soldiers. 


298  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VII. 

of  the  royal  progress  ;  the  little  town  of  Negrepelisse  in  Quercy, 
where  a  detachment  of  the  king's  troops  had  been  put  to  the 
sword  during  the  winter,  was  sacked,  and  the  entire  population 
was  indiscriminately  butchered. 

It  was  during  the  summer  of  1622  that  the  aged  Marshal 
Lesdiguieres  made  his  abjuration  of  Calvinism  in  the  cathe- 
dral of  Grenoble,  and  was  received  into  the  Catholic  Church  by 
the  Archbishop  of  Embrun.  Although  the  defection  of  such  a 
personage  was,  doubtless,  a  mortifying  blow  to  the  Protestants, 
it  can  hardly  have  occasioned  surprise.  Throughout  life  Les- 
diguieres had  been  a  lukewarm  Huguenot;  and  it  was  well 
known  that  of  late  years  he  had  become  entirely  alienated  from 
the  creed  of  the  Keformers,  and  ready  on  the  first  favourable 
opportunity  to  renounce  it  openly.  It  was  a  suspicious  cir- 
cumstance, no  doubt,  that  the  marshal,  on  the  very  day  of  his 
recantation,  received  from  the  king  the  Constable's  sword,  which 
had  for  years  been  the  object  of  his  ambition.  This,  not  unna- 
turally, exposed  him  to  a  storm  of  sarcastic  reproaches  from  the 
party  which  he  abandoned ;  his  appointment  was,  in  their  view, 
the  wages  of  apostasy — the  thirty  pieces  of  silver  for  which 
Judas  sold  his  Lord.  It  must,  however,  in  justice  be  remem- 
bered that  Lesdiguieres  had  made  up  his  mind  to  the  step 
which  he  finally  adopted  for  a  considerable  period  before  he 
thus  attained  the  highest  dignity  of  his  profession.  It  appears 
that  his  first  impressions  in  favour  of  Catholicism  were  due  to 
the  powerful  reasonings  and  exhortations  of  Father  Cotton, 
whose  sermons  he  continued  to  attend  at  different  intervals  for 
twenty  years.  He  had  also  frequented  the  ministrations  of 
S.  Fran9ois  de  Sales,  when  on  two  successive  occasions,  in  the 
years  1617  and  1618,  he  preached  during  Lent  at  Grenoble ; 
and  had  repeatedly  sought  instruction  from  that  great  prelate 
in  private.  The  real  reason  why  Lesdiguieres  neglected  for 
so  many  years  to  obey  the  dictates  of  his  conscience  was  an 
immoral  connexion,  which  he  lacked  the  firmness  and  courage 
to  break  off.  His  mistress,  Marie  Vignon,  became  his  wife  after 
the  death  of  his  first  duchess;  and  the  only  obstacle  to  his 
reconciliation  with  the  Church  being  thus  removed,  he  lost  no 
time  in  carrying  out  his  long-formed  purpose. 

Unquestionably  Lesdiguieres  was  not  superior  to  the  common 
weaknesses  of  humanity,  and  ambition  was  one  of  his  besetting 


A.D.  1622.  SUBMISSION  OF  THE  HUGUENOTS.  299 

infirmities ;  but  it  would  be  unfair  to  attribute  his  conversion 
solely  to  motives  of  this  sordid  kind.  So  far  as  can  be  ascer- 
tained, his  rejection  of  the  doctrines  of  Luther  and  Calvin  was 
sincere ;  and  he  seems  to  have  returned  with  implicit  confidence 
and  satisfaction  to  the  Church  of  his  forefathers.  Lesdiguieres 
died  at  the  age  of  eighty-four,  in  September,  1626. 

Towards  the  end  of  August  the  royal  army  commenced  the 
siege  of  Montpellier,  which  resisted  for  several  weeks.  But,  mean- 
while, negociations  were  proceeding  between  the  Duke  of  Kohan 
and  the  Constable  Lesdiguieres.  Manifold  difficulties  presented 
themselves,  which  were  at  length  overcome,  and  on  the  19th  of 
October  it  was  announced  that  peace  had  been  definitively  con- 
cluded. By  the  treaty  of  Montpellier  a  general  amnesty  was 
granted,  and  the  king  again  confirmed  the  Edict  of  Nantes  in 
its  full  extent ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  the  terms  imposed  upon 
the  Huguenots  were  sufficiently  humiliating.  Their  cautionary 
towns  were  forfeited,  with  the  exception  of  La  Rochelle  and 
Montauban  ;  Montpellier  was  to  be  dismantled,  and  its  municipal 
officers  henceforth  nominated  by  the  Crown ;  all  new  fortifica- 
tions raised  by  the  Huguenots  were  to  be  demolished;  and 
though  they  were  still  permitted  to  retain  their  synods  and  "  col- 
loquies" for  purely  religious  matters,  they  were  interdicted 
from  holding  meetings  for  political  purposes  without  the  king's 
permission,  under  the  penalties  of  high  treason. 

Thus  this  ill-advised  movement  enabled  the  Government  to 
attack  with  fatal  effect  the  material  guarantees  which  the 
Calvinists  had  extorted  by  former  successes,  and  by  means  of 
which  they  had  rendered  themselves  so  dangerous  to  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  State.  After  this,  their  extinction  as  a  political 
party  was  merely  a  question  of  time.  A  change  of  administra- 
tion was  at  hand,  which  boded  ominously  for  their  interests. 
The  anomaly  of  an  imperium  in  imperio — a  rival  power  estab- 
lished side  by  side  with  the  monarchical  authority,  and  pos- 
sessing its  own  instruments  of  independent  action — was  wholly 
irreconcilable  with  the  principles  and  genius  of  Eichelieu. 
That  great  statesman  accordingly  made  it  his  primary  object,  on 
succeeding  to  the  helm  of  affairs,  to  put  an  end  to  the  abnormal 
position  occupied  by  the  Huguenots,  and  to  reduce  them  to  the 
harmless  level  of  a  tolerated  sect.  It  followed  from  this  policy, 
that  the  Gallican  Church  recovered  its  legitimate  status  as  the 


300  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VII. 

sole  authorized  teacher  of  the  nation ;  though  at  the  same  time 
Richelieu  discouraged  religious  persecution,  and  respected,  for 
the  most  part,  the  individual  rights  of  conscience. 

An  interval  of  more  than  two  years  elapsed  after  the  death  of 
the  Constable  de  Luynes  before  the  accession  of  Richelieu  to 
supreme  authority.  His  elevation  to  the  Conclave  took  place 
on  the  5th  of  September,  1622  ;  having  been  long  delayed  by 
the  jealousy  of  De  Luynes,  and  by  the  personal  antipathy  with 
which  he  was  regarded  by  the  king.  At  this  moment  the 
persons  who  enjoyed  the  greatest  influence  at  court  were  the 
Comte  de  Schomberg,  superintendent  of  finance,  the  Marquis  de 
Puisieux,  Secretary  of  State,  Cardinal  de  la  Rochefoucauld,  and 
Marshal  Bassompierre.  They  were  all  men  of  inferior  ability, 
but  they  were  closely  united  by  one  common  object,  namely, 
that  of  excluding  the  new  cardinal  from  any  share  in  the  adminis- 
tration. Richelieu,  although  at  this  juncture  he  affected  great 
moderation,  and  even  sought  to  excuse  himself,  on  the  score  of 
weak  health,  from  engaging  in  any  public  employment,*  was 
well  known  to  possess  unbounded  ambition,  consummate  talent, 
and  inflexible  stedfastness  of  purpose.  The  ministers,  conscious 
of  their  own  weakness,  foresaw  that  if  the  doors  of  the  council 
chamber  were  once  more  opened  to  him,  the  cardinal  would 
eclipse  all  competitors,  and  monopolise  the  government.  Never- 
theless the  force  of  circumstances,  and  the  imperative  require- 
ments of  the  public  interest,  prevailed  eventually  against  these 
hostile  intrigues.  The  incapacity  of  his  present  advisers 
became  manifest  to  Louis,  who  was  by  no  means  deficient  in 
intelligence,  though  too  timid  to  rely  on  the  resources  of  his 
own  mind  in  the  great  task  of  government.  The  Secretary 
Puisieux  was  dismissed  in  January,  1624,  and  his  disgrace  was 
shared  by  his  father,  the  Chancellor  de  Sillery.  Schomberg 
had  been  previously  deprived  of  office  ;  and  the  chief  authority 
now  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Marquis  de  la  Vieuville, 
Cardinal  de  la  Rochefoucauld  continuing  to  act  as  the  nominal 
President  of  the  Council.  Vieuville  found  it  necessary  to 
strengthen  his  position  by  obtaining  the  support  of  the  Queen 
Mother,  who  since  her  last  reconciliation  with  Louis  had  again 
become  a  person  of  considerable  importance.  Mary  made  it  a 


*  F.  Griffet,  Hist,  du  Reyne  de  Louts  XIII.,  tom.  i.  p.  414. 


A.I).  1624.  RICHELIEU  PRIME  MINISTER.  301 

condition  of  her  adhesion  that  her  confidant  Richelieu  should 
be  introduced  into  the  royal  council.  Yieuville  assented,  and 
accordingly  recommended  the  measure  to  the  king.  Louis, 
who  had  accurately  divined  the  Cardinal's  character,  resisted 
for  several  weeks  all  solicitations  in  his  favour.  At  length  he 
yielded,  contrary  to  his  private  inclination,  but  in  accordance, 
we  may  well  believe,  with  his  sense  both  of  duty  and  of  interest 
on  public  grounds.  On  the  26th  of  April,  1624,  the  Cardinal 
took  his  seat  for  the  second  time  as  a  member  of  the  Council 
of  State ;  a  place  which  he  had  the  address  to  retain,  without 
any  serious  vicissitudes  of  fortune  or  diminution  of  influence, 
throughout  his  life.  He  immediately  resigned  his  bishopric  of 
Lucon,  feeling  that  he  could  no  longer  fulfil  the  obligation  of 
residence ;  and  his  successor  in  the  see  was  consecrated  in  June, 
1624.  From  the  first  moment,  the  master  spirit  of  the  new 
minister  asserted  its  supremacy,  and  Louis  ere  long  resigned 
himself  to  his  inevitable  dominion.  Richelieu  inaugurated  his 
reign  by  claiming  for  himself,  as  a  prince  of  the  Church,  the 
right  of  precedence  over  all  the  great  officers  of  the  Crown,  and 
over  all  other  members  of  the  Council  except  the  princes  of  the 
blood  royal.  Vieuville,  having  served  the  Cardinal's  purposes, 
was  driven  from  office  on  the  first  pretext,  and  was  imprisoned 
in  the  chateau  of  Amboise ;  and  Richelieu  at  once  succeeded  to 
the  undisputed  control  of  the  vessel  of  the  State. 

It  soon  appeared  that  the  Huguenots  had  gained  no  accession 
of  wisdom  by  the  failure  of  their  recent  insurrection.  Several 
of  the  provisions  of  the  treaty  of  Montpellier  had  been  evaded 
by  the  Crown.  Fort  Louis,  a  royal  garrison  which  menaced 
La  Rochelle,  had  not  been  demolished  according  to  promise. 
Obstacles  had  been  thrown  in  the  way  of  the  meeting  of  the 
reformed  synods  and  consistories ;  the  civil  privileges  guaranteed 
by  the  Edict  of  Nantes  had  been  violated  by  the  provincial 
authorities  ;  cases  of  gross  partiality  and  injustice  had  occurred 
in  the  administration  of  the  law  by  the  parliament.  On  these 
grounds  the  sectaries  hazarded  another  revolt  in  1625,  at  a 
moment  when  large  bodies  of  the  king's  troops  had  been  de- 
spatched on  foreign  expeditions.  The  enterprise  was  conducted 
by  the  two  brothers  Rohan  and  Soubise  with  their  usual 
gallantry,  the  former  commanding  by  land,  the  latter  by  sea. 
The  details  of  the  operations  belong  to  the  civil  history  of  the 


302  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VII. 

time.  Soubise  obtained  some  successes,  but  suffered  a  total 
defeat  off  the  Isle  of  Rhe,  with  the  loss  of  almost  his  whole 
fleet ;  after  which  the  general  assembly  of  the  Protestants  sent 
deputies  to  treat  with  the  Government  for  conditions  of  peace. 
The  king  expressed  himself  willing  to  grant  terms  of  recon- 
ciliation to  the  Protestants  of  Languedoc,  but  was  not  disposed 
to  extend  his  clemency  to  those  inveterate  rebels  the  Rochellois. 
The  deputies  represented  that  it  was  essential  to  include  in 
any  pacific  arrangement  both  La  Rochelle  and  the  Duke  of 
Soubise,  whom  they  entitled  "  grand  Admiral  of  the  Protestant 
churches."  This  point  was  at  length  conceded  through  the 
influence  of  Richelieu,  who  felt  that,  in  order  to  carry  out 
successfully  his  schemes  of  foreign  policy,  it  was  absolutely 
necessary  to  gain  a  respite  from  the  treasonable  agitation  which 
distracted  France  at  home.  He  persuaded  Louis,  therefore,  to 
grant  peace  once  more  to  his  Protestant  subjects  without  ex- 
ception ;  and  that  upon  more  favourable  terms  than  they  had 
any  just  reason  to  expect.  They  were  left  in  possession  of  most 
of  their  former  privileges ;  and  the  long,  though  he  declined  to 
dismantle  Fort  Louis,  engaged  that,  so  long  as  the  citizens  of 
La  Rochelle  behaved  peaceably  and  loyally,  their  commerce 
should  not  be  in  any  way  obstructed  by  the  royal  garrison.  A 
special  commissioner  was  to  reside  at  La  Rochelle  during  the 
king's  pleasure  to  superintend  the  execution  of  the  articles  of 
the  treaty. 

The  motives  of  Richelieu  in  dealing  thus  leniently  with  the 
heretics  were  misunderstood,  or  purposely  misrepresented,  by 
zealous  Catholics  both  at  home  and  abroad.  "My  design," 
replied  the  Cardinal  to  the  remonstrances  of  the  Papal  nuncio 
Spada,  "  is  to  crush  the  Huguenots  completely  and  for  ever ; 
but  before  doing  so,  I  shall  be  compelled  to  scandalise  the 
world  once  more.*  Just  now  they  are  reviling  me  at  Rome  as 
a  heretic ;  the  day  will  come  when  they  will  be  more  ready  to 
canonise  me  as  a  saint."  He  had  already  astonished  Europe  by 
siding  with  the  Protestants  of  the  Orisons  against  the  House  of 
Austria,  and  even  against  the  forces  of  the  Pope  himself ;  and 
by  superficial  or  prejudiced  observers  the  present  pacification 
with  the  Rochellois  was  viewed  as  a  repetition  of  the  same 


*  Le  Vassor,  Liv.  xxii. 


A.D.  1626.  POLICY  OF  RICHELIEU.  303 

strange  policy.     When  the  treaty  was  signed,  on  the  5th  of 
February,    1626,    Eichelieu,    accompanied    by  his    colleague 
Cardinal  de  la  Eochefoucauld,  retired  from  the  council  chamber, 
in  order  to  avoid  the  appearance  of  participating  in  an  act  of 
grace  to  heretics.     But  in  spite  of  this  precaution,  the  ultra- 
Catholic  bigots  assailed  the  minister  with  every  kind  of  libellous 
vituperation ;  he  was  held  up  to  ridicule  as  "  the  Cardinal  of 
La  Kochelle,"  "  the  patriarch  of  the  Atheists,"  "  the  Calvinist 
Pontiff."     Two  of  the  satires  launched  against  his  seemingly 
anti- Catholic  proceedings  on  this  occasion  were  of  so  dangerous 
a  tendency,  that  the  cardinal  deemed  it  necessary  to  bring 
them  under  the  notice  of  the   Assembly   of  the    clergy  then 
in  session  at  Paris.      They   were  anonymous  publications,  of 
which  the  first  was  entitled  '  Mysteria  politica ; '  the   second, 
*  Admonitio  ad  regem    Christianissimum    Ludovicum    XIII.' 
They  were  printed  in  Italy,  and  were  attributed  to  the  Jesuits 
Eudaemon-Jean,  Garasse,  and  Keller.     "  The  King  of  France," 
the  author  asserted,  "  was  inconsistent  with  himself;  with  one 
hand  he   made  war  upon  the   heretics   at  home,  while  with 
the   other  he   supported   them   against  the  Catholics  abroad. 
He   had  succoured  the   States   General   of  Holland;  he  was 
helping  to  reinstate  a  heretic  Elector  lawfully  deprived  of  his 
dignity ;  he  had  leagued  himself  with  the  Protestants  of  the 
Grisons  against  the  Catholics  of  the  Valteline."     The  pamphle- 
teers proceeded  to  discuss  in  detail  various  questions  of  a  grossly 
seditious  character;  for  example,  whether  it  was  not  the  duty  of 
the  States-General  of  France  to  point  out  to  the  king  that  his 
alliances  with  heretics  were  unbecoming  and  criminal ;  whether 
Louis  had  not  by  such  conduct  incurred  the  penalty  of  excom- 
munication; whether  his  evil  advisers  are  not  equally  liable 
to  ecclesiastical  censure;  whether  the  king  ought  not  to  be 
restrained  by  force  from  scandalising  the  Christian  world  by 
making  war  upon  Catholics ;  whether,  under  the  present  cir- 
cumstances of  the  kingdom,  it  was  not  the  duty  of  Frenchmen 
to  elect  a  prince  capable  of  effectually  defending  the  Catholic 
religion,  and  if  so,  where  such  a  prince  was  to  be  found.     In 
conclusion,  the  king  was  denounced  as  an  enemy  of  the  Church, 
against  whom  the  Pope  ought  forthwith  to  unsheath  the  sword 
of  St.  Peter,  and  thus  authorize  other  princes  to  declare  war 
against  him  in  the  common  cause  of  Christendom.     "  God  had 


304  THE  GALLIC  AN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VII 

permitted  his  father  Henry  IV.  to  be  assassinated,  as  a  punish- 
for  having  attempted  to  put  two  heretic  princes  into  possession 
of  the  duchies  of  Cleves  and  Juliers.  The  cause  which  the 
House  of  Austria  had  espoused  in  this  quarrel  was  none  other 
than  the  cause  of  God  himself.  To  make  war  upon  sovereigns 
who  were  defending  the  Catholic  religion  was  to  act  in  open 
opposition  to  the  Divine  will, — to  "  fight  against  God."  Every 
page  of  the  work  abounded  with  virulent  abuse  of  Richelieu,  as 
the  firebrand  of  Europe,  the  projector  of  the  "  English  mar- 
riage," and  the  author  of  the  unnatural  league  between  France 
and  anti-Catholic  powers. 

These  extravagant  productions  were  publicly  burnt  at  Paris, 
by  order  of  the  Lieutenant  Civil,  on  the  30th  of  October,  1625 ; 
and  one  of  them,  the  "  Admonitio,"  was  censured,  without 
difficulty,  by  the  Sorbonne  on  the  following  26th  of  November. 
But  in  the  ecclesiastical  assembly  matters  took  a  different 
turn.  The  Gallicans  were,  at  tin's  time,  a  powerful  party, 
anxious  to  stand  well  with  the  Court,  and  well  disposed  towards 
the  ministry  of  Richelieu.  But  the  Ultramontane  section  was 
not  less  numerously  represented  in  the  Synod ;  and  a  question 
of  this  nature,  involving  as  it  did  the  crucial  points  at  issue 
between  the  two  schools,  was  certain  to  provoke  an  animated 
contest. 

The  Bishop  of  Chartres,  Leonor  d'Etampes,  a  man  of  high 
reputation  both  for  character  and  learning,  and  a  personal 
friend  of  Richelieu,  was  commissioned  to  draw  up  a  report 
upon  the  two  libellous  treatises.  That  prelate  accordingly  pre- 
sented to  the  Assembly,  on  the  13th  of  December,  an  elaborate 
"  Declaration,"  in  which  he  enlarged  on  the  presumption,  inso- 
lence, and  wicked  purposes  of  the  anonymous  pamphleteers; 
asserted,  in  the  loftiest  language,  the  Divine  authority  of  kings, 
and  the  consequent  necessity  of  unqualified  passive  obedience 
on  the  part  of  subjects ;  defended  the  policy  of  the  Government 
both  at  home  and  abroad ;  and  extolled,  with  warm  admira- 
tion, the  genius  and  virtues  of  Richelieu.*  This  document  was 
approved,  and  ordered  to  be  printed  in  French  and  Latin,  and 
the  Synod  immediately  afterwards  separated.  But  the  Ultra- 
montanes  were  by  no  means  disposed  to  submit  tamely  to  such 

*•  Mercure  Fraitcnin.  torn.  xi..  1068.     Le  Vassor,  Liv.  xxii. 


A.D.  1626.      INTRIGUES  IN  THE  ASSEMBLY  OF  CLERGY.          305 

a  damaging  censure  of  their  favourite  dogmas ;  and,  with  the 
assistance  of  the  Nuncio  Spada,  they  set  every  available  engine 
in  motion  to  procure  the  withdrawal  or  disavowal  of  the  report. 
In  this  they  were  so  far  successful  that,  at  a  private  meeting 
under  the  presidency  of  Cardinal  de  la  Valette,*  Archbishop 
of  Toulouse,  a  second  report  was  adopted,  condemning  the  libel 
in  general  terms,  but  avoiding  all  mention  of  theological  points 
in  dispute  between  the  Gallicans  and  the  Eoman  curia.  The 
Parliament  of  Paris,  on  the  first  information  of  this  clerical 
stratagem,  interposed,  forbidding  the  publication  of  any  other 
manifesto  on  the  subject  than  that  sanctioned  by  the  Assembly 
on  the  13th  of  December.  In  the  teeth  of  this  injunction,  the 
dissentients,  including  two  cardinals,  eight  archbishops,  and 
thirty-two  bishops,  with  five  deputies  of  the  second  order, 
assembled  at  the  Abbey  of  St.  Genevieve,  and  signed  an 
act  repudiating  the  report  of  the  Bishop  of  Chartres,  on 
the  ground  that  the  Assembly  had  never  deliberated  on  its 
contents.  They  also  petitioned  the  king  to  annul  the  pro- 
hibitory decree  of  the  Parliament  The  magistrates  rejoined 
by  another  arret,  declaring  the  proceedings  of  the  prelates 
illegal,  null,  and  void,  forbidding  future  meetings  of  the  clergy 
for  any  similar  purpose,  and  ordering  the  archbishops  and  bishops 
to  repair  to  their  dioceses  within  fifteen  days,  under  pain  of 
forfeiting  their  temporalities. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  the  conduct  of  the  French  pre- 
lates on  this  occasion  was  strangely  undignified  and  inconsistent. 
After  solemnly  expressing  their  assent,  while  constitutionally 
assembled  in  Synod,  to  the  declaration  prepared  by  their  brother 
of  Chartres,  they  are  suddenly  converted  to  an  opposite  view  of 
the  case,  revoke  their  own  act,  and  put  forth  a  different  state- 
ment, from  which  all  mention  of  the  grounds  of  the  former 
censure  is  carel'ully  excluded.  Even  the  Bishop  of  Chartres 
himself  came  forward,  and  announced  that  he  accepted  the  dis- 
avowal of  the  original  declaration  of  which  he  was  the  author, 


*  Louis  de  Nogaret  de  la  Valette  from  that  of  the  ecclesiastical  pro- 
was  the  third  son  of  the  Duke  of  Eper-  fession,  preferred  him  to  various  posts 
non,  and  was  raised  to  the  Roman  Con-  of  civil  authority,  and  even  employed 
clave  by  Paul  V.  in  1621.  He  became  him  in  the  command  of  armies.  Car- 
one  of  the  stancliest  partisans  of  Hicln-  dinal  de  la  Valette  died  at  Kivoli  in 
lieu,  and  the  minister,  perceiving  that  Piedmont  in  1639. 
his  talents  lay  in  a  very  different  line 

VOL.  I.  X 


306  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VII. 

on  condition  that  the  other  prelates  and  deputies  would  sub- 
scribe the  three  following  propositions  : — "  That  no  cause  what- 
soever can  justify  subjects  in  revolting  against  their  lawful 
sovereign ;"  "  That  no  one  upon  earth  has  power  to  dispense  or 
absolve  them  from  their  oath  of  allegiance ;"  and  "  That  no  power 
exists  which  can  deprive  a  monarch  of  his  throne."  The  Jesuit 
D'Avrigny  endeavours  to  dispose  of  the  difficulty  by  alleging 
that  the  sentence  first  published  was  unauthorized  and  surrep- 
titious ;  that  the  Parliament,  whose  sentiments  it  expressed,  im- 
posed it  upon  the  world  as  genuine ;  and  that  the  second  docu- 
ment, disowning  the  former,  was  the  only  one  that  set  forth  authen- 
tically the  judgment  of  the  French  clergy  upon  the  work  before 
them.*  But  this  is  altogether  improbable.  In  the  first  place,  the 
report  of  the  Bishop  of  Chartres  was  entered  upon  the  official 
register  of  the  acts  of  the  Assembly ;  and  in  the  next,  it  is 
scarcely  credible  that,  in  a  case  of  such  general  notoriety,  any 
document  professing  to  emanate  from  the  assembled  cardinals, 
prelates,  and  clergy  of  the  Church  could  have  been  put  into 
circulation  in  Paris,  and  received  as  such,  unless  it  had  been 
issued  with  the  sanction  of  that  body.  The  true  solution  is  to 
be  found,  in  all  probability,  in  the  immense  influence  wielded  by 
the  Jesuits,  and  in  their  ceaseless  energy  and  marvellous  dex- 
terity in  all  cases  where  the  interests  of  the  Order  were  at  stake. 
Meanwhile  two  points  of  considerable  importance  are  illus- 
trated by  this  transaction.  It  appears,  first,  that  a  great 
amount  of  arbitrary  pressure  was  exercised  at  this  period  on 
the  ecclesiastical  Synod,  both  by  the  executive  Government 
and  by  the  Courts  of  Parliament.  And  again,  it  is  plain  that 
a  reaction  had  taken  place  among  the  clergy,  with  refer- 
ence to  the  Ultramontane  doctrines,  since  the  meeting  of  the 
States-General  in  1614.  During  that  interval  of  twelve 
years  the  principles  of  Gallicanism  had  been  steadily  gaining 
ground.  Du  Perron,  the  champion  of  the  opposite  system,  had 
been  removed  by  death  in  1618,  and  had  left  no  one  of  equal 
calibre  to  supply  his  place.  De  Berulle,  however  able,  zealous, 
and  influential  in  his  own  sphere,  was  not  fitted  by  nature  for 
a  party  leader.  Richelieu,  who  was  now  master  of  the  situa- 
tion, had  just  exhibited  the  spectacle  of  a  cardinal  actively 

*  D'Avrigny,  M&moires  Clironoloy.,  torn.  i.  p.  387. 


A.D.  1626.          THE  PARLIAMENT  AND  THE  CLERGY.  307 

sympathising  with  heretics  in  declared  antagonism  to  the  Pope. 
Under  these  circumstances,  a  decided  impulse  was  given  to  the 
development  of  that  system  of  national  Catholicism,  as  distin- 
guished from  servile  dependence  on  the  Papacy,  which  afterwards 
obtained  so  widely  in  France ; — the  system  which  culminated  in 
the  memorable  Declaration  of  the  Gallican  clergy  of  1682. 

The  clergy  protested  vehemently  against  the  decree  of 
the  Parliament  on  the  3rd  of  March,  by  which  they  were 
admonished  to  close  their  debates  and  retire  from  Paris.  They 
declared  that  the  magistrates  had  no  authority  over  the 
Church  lawfully  represented  in  Synod;  that  it  was  both  the 
right  and  the  duty  of  the  prelates  to  meet  in  deliberation  on 
the  affairs  of  religion  as  often  as  occasion  might  require; 
that  at  present  they  were  assembled  for  the  purpose  of  ob- 
taining, if  possible,  the  suppression  of  the  arrets  complained  of, 
and  in  order  to  dissuade  the  public  from  attaching  any  weight 
to  them,  to  the  prejudice  of  their  souls  and  of  the  respect  due 
to  religion.  This  manifesto  was  ordered  to  be  burnt  by  the 
public  executioner,  and  the  Archbishop  of  Auch  and  the  Bishop 
of  Angers  were  summoned  to  the  bar  of  the  Parliament  to 
answer  for  their  conduct.  It  was  now  apprehended  that  a 
serious  collision  would  ensue  between  the  civil  and  ecclesias- 
tical authorities.  Kichelieu  thought  it  time  to  interfere;  and 
on  the  26th  of  March  the  king,  by  his  advice,  evoked  the 
whole  affair  to  his  own  cognizance.  The  Parliament,  notwith- 
standing this,  repeated  their  summons  to  the  two  prelates  to 
appear  before  the  Court ;  upon  which  the  bishops  demanded 
an  audience  of  the  king,  in  order  to  remonstrate  against  this 
abuse  of  power.  This  was  granted,  and  the  day  for  receiving 
them  was  fixed ;  but  before  it  arrived  the  magistrates  signified 
their  submission  to  the  Order  of  Council  by  which  the  cause 
was  evoked  to  the  king's  person.  The  conflict  was  thus  cut 
short,  and  no  further  proceedings  were  taken  on  either  side. 

Before  the  excitement  caused  by  these  incidents  had  sub- 
sided, the  Ultramontane  faction  came  into  still  more  serious 
collision  with  the  civil  authorities  in  consequence  of  a  work 
published  at  Rome  by  a  Jesuit  named  Antonio  Santarelli,  en- 
titled '  De  Hseresi,  Schismate,  Apostasia,  sollicitatione  in  sacra- 
mento  poenitentiae,  et  de  potestate  summi  Pontificis  in  his 
delictis  puniendis.'  The  book  appeared  under  the  sanction  of 

x  2 


308  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VII. 

the  Papal  Government,  and  of  Vitelleschi,  General  of  the 
Jesuits.  A  few  copies  having  been  received  by  a  bookseller  in 
Paris,  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  certain  fathers  of  the  Order, 
who,  perceiving  the  dangerous  nature  of  the  author's  views, 
immediately  notified  their  apprehensions  to  Father  Cotton, 
their  provincial.  Cotton  hastened  to  secure  the  remaining 
copies ;  but,  before  this  could  be  done,  one  of  them  had  been 
inspected  by  a  vigilant  doctor  of  the  Sorbonne,  who  made 
copious  extracts  from  the  volume,  and  took  care  that  they  were 
widely  circulated.  The  authorities  of  the  Parliament  sounded 
the  alarm;  a  copy  of  Santarelli's  treatise  was  procured  from 
Lyons,  and,  being  submitted  to  the  Syndic  of  the  Sorbonne 
and  the  Advocate-General  Servin,  proved  to  abound  in  matter 
for  serious  animadversion. 

Santarelli,  as  an  exponent  of  Ultramoutanism,  seems  to  have 
indulged  in  a  more  exaggerated  tone  than  any  of  his  predecessors. 
According  to  him,  the  judgment  of  the  Pope  is  identical  with  that 
of  God  himself;  as  Vicar  of  Christ,  he  has  authority  to  punish 
temporal  princes  for  grave  dereliction  of  duty,  even  to  the 
extent,  if  he  thinks  fit,  of  depriving  them  of  their  dominions ;  he 
is  the  sole  depository  of  supreme  authority  on  earth  ;  monarchs 
are  his  lieutenants,  holdiug  a  delegated  power,  which  for  just 
reason  may  at  any  time  be  revoked  by  him.  No  mediaeval 
Hildebrand,  Innocent,  or  Boniface,  could  have  exalted  the  pre- 
rogatives of  the  Holy  See  to  a  more  monstrous  pitch.  The  case 
came  on  for  hearing  before  the  Parliament  of  Paris  on  the 
13th  of  March,  1626.  On  this  day  Louis  XIII.  held  a  «  bed  of 
justice  "  for  the  registration  of  some  edicts,  and  was  present  at 
the  scene  which  followed. 

The  Advocate-General,  at  the  very  moment  when  he  rose  to 
address  the  Court  for  the  prosecution,  was  seized  with  a  fit  of 
apoplexy,  and  expired  almost  instantaneously.  This  tragical 
event  was  not  allowed  to  interrupt  the  proceedings.  Servin 
was  replaced  by  Omer  Talon,  a  man  of  equal  ability,  and  of 
more  moderate  temper,  whose  speech  against  the  inculpated 
Order  created  intense  sensation.  Under  the  influence  of  these 
feelings  the  Court  adjudged  Santarelli's  book  to  be  burned  by 
the  hangman  on  the  Place  de  Greve ;  after  which  they  pro- 
ceeded to  deliberate  whether  further  penal  measures  were  not 
required  by  the  occasion  ;  and  it  was  proposed  to  interdict  the 


A.D.  1626.         THE  PARLIAMENT  AND  THE  JESUITS. 


309 


Jesuits  from  officiating  in  the  pulpit  and  the  confessional,  to 
close  their  College  de  Clermont,  and  even  to  expel  them  for 
the  second  time  from  France.  None  of  these  meditated  penal- 
ties, however,  were  inflicted.  Whether  the  magistrates,  when 
their  indignation  had  somewhat  cooled,  felt  that  a  milder  course 
would  meet  the  emergency;  or  whether  the  friends  of  the  Order 
at  court  found  means  to  interest  the  king  in  their  behalf ;  * 
or  again  (which  is  most  probable),  whether  the  Cardinal- 
minister  himself  intimated  that,  although  resolved  to  main- 
tain the  supremacy  of  the  Crown,  he  could  not  sanction 
persecution ;  certain  it  is  that  the  Jesuits  were  treated  with 
more  clemency  than  might  have  been  expected.  The  Parlia- 
ment contented  itself  with  ordering  Father  Cotton  and  his 
colleagues  to  appear  at  the  Palais  de  Justice  for  examination. 
They  accordingly  repaired  thither  on  the  day  named ;  where 
their  bearing — modest  and  submissive,  yet  withal  composed  and 
manly — seems  to  have  conciliated  the  sympathy  of  the  audi- 
ence. They  were  severely  interrogated  by  the  first  President 
de  Verdun,  after  which  they  were  required  to  sign  the  four 
following  propositions: — 1.  "The  king  holds  his  crown  and 
kingdom  only  from  God  and  his  sword."  2.  "  The  Pope  has  no 
authority,  either  coercive  or  directive,  over  temporal  sovereigns." 
3.  "  The  king  cannot  in  any  case  be  excommunicated  perso- 
nally." 4.  "  The  Pope  has  no  power  to  release  subjects  from 
their  oath  of  allegiance,  nor  to  place  the  kingdom  under  an 
interdict  for  any  cause  whatever."  Father  Cotton,  though  at 
this  time  he  was  afflicted  with  a  mortal  malady,  had  sufficient 
self-command  and  tact  to  reply  to  this  demand,  that  he  and 
his  brethren  would  willingly  sign  the  propositions,  provided 
the  Sorbonne  and  the  Assenibly  of  the  clergy  then  sitting  would 
subscribe  them  likewise ;  but  that  it  was  not  their  province  to 
dictate  terms  to  their  superiors.  The  response  was  embarrassing ; 
for  it  was  notorious  that  divisions  existed  both  in  the  Sorbonne 
and  among  the  clergy  with  respect  to  the  doctrines  which  these 
articles  involved.  After  some  consultation,  the  Court  was  on 
the  point  of  ordering  the  two  leading  Jesuits  to  be  arrested, 
when  the  first  President  adjourned  the  decision  to  the  following 


*  Mathieu  de  Mole,  at  that  time 
Procureur-General,  afterwards  the  cele- 
brated premier  President  during  the 


Fronde,  is  known  to  have  interceded 
with  Louis  to  stop  the  proceedings  of 
the  Parliament,  but  without  success. 


310  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CIIAP.  VII. 

Monday ;  and  the  party  made  such  good  use  of  the  breathing- 
tiine  thus  granted  them,  that  Richelieu  at  last  promised  that 
proceedings  against  them  should  be  dropped,  if  they  would 
sign  a  written  agreement  to  adhere  to  the  censure  which 
the  Sorbonne  and  the  clergy  might  pass  upon  the  work  of 
Santarelli,  and  to  support,  with  regard  to  its  subject  matter, 
the  sentiments  professed  by  the  Church  of  France,  the 
Faculty  of  Theology  at  Paris,  and  the  Universities  of  the  king- 
dom. To  this  the  Jesuits  assented  without  difficulty ;  having  done 
the  same  thing,  as  the  reader  may  remember,  on  a  former 
occasion.*  With  the  aid  of  certain  casuistical  refinements, 
they  could  always  elude  the  obligation  of  any  undertaking 
which  it  might  prove  inconvenient  or  disagreeable  to  fulfil. 

Father  Cotton  breathed  his  last  on  the  day  after  this  pacific 
compromise  had  been  arranged  between  the  French  Govern- 
ment and  the  representatives  of  his  Order.f  Although  his 
health  had  been  for  some  time  failing,  there  is  no  doubt  that 
his  end  was  hastened  by  the  anxiety  he  had  undergone  during 
the  progress  of  this  harassing  affair.  By  way  of  some  repara- 
tion, and  in  testimony  of  respect  for  his  memory,  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Paris  officiated  at  the  funeral,  and  pronounced  the 
absolution ;  and  Richelieu  himself  afterwards  visited  his  tomb, 
where  he  remained  for  some  time  absorbed  in  prayer. 

When  the  censure  of  Santarelli  came  under  the  consideration 
of  the  Theological  Faculty,  the  doctors  found  it  exceedingly  diffi- 
cult to  arrive  at  a  decision.  The  question  was  long  and  vehe- 
mently debated  by  the  antagonist  parties — the  "  Duvallistes," 
as  they  were  now  designated,  from  their  leader  Andre  Duval, 
and  the  "  Richeristes,"  so  called  from  their  sympathy  with  the 
deposed  Syndic  Edmond  Richer.  There  seems  to  have  been  a 
general  feeling  that  censure  in  some  shape  was  required ;  but 
it  was  impossible  to  agree  upon  the  terms.  A  decree  was  at 
length  passed  condemning  the  doctrine  of  Santarelli  as  "  novel, 
false,  erroneous,  and  contrary  to  the  Word  of  God ;  as  exposing 
the  dignity  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  to  public  odium,  derogating 
from  the  authority  of  kings,  subversive  of  public  peace,  and 
tending  to  encourage  faction,  rebellion,  sedition,  and  murderous 
attempts  upon  the  life  of  princes."  The  minority,  however, 


*  See  supra,  Chapter  VI.  f  March  19,  1626. 


A.D.  IG27.  CENSURE  OF  SANTARELLI.  311 

headed  by  Duval,  refused  to  accept  this  decision,  and  strained 
every  nerve  to  obtain  some  modification  or  retrenchment  of  the 
terms  employed.  The  question  was  agitated  at  many  succes- 
sive meetings  with  extreme  irritation  on  both  sides.  The  patience 
of  Kichelieu  was  at  length  exhausted,  and  he  interposed  in  his 
usual  high-handed  style.  On  the  13th  of  February,  1627,  a 
royal  ordinance  forbad  the  Faculty  to  take  any  further  pro- 
ceedings with  regard  to  Santarelli's  book,  or  to  publish  any 
report  of  their  deliberations  on  the  subject  without  the  king's 
permission.  The  Parliament,  in  defiance  of  this  command, 
insisted  that  the  sentence  passed  by  the  Sorbonne  should  be 
communicated  for  registration  in  their  archives,  and  took  other 
steps  for  prolonging  the  contest.  The  consequence  was  a 
peremptory  order  of  Council,  enjoining  the  magistrates  to 
interfere  no  further  in  an  affair  which  was  beyond  their  cog- 
nizance. The  king  added  that,  in  order  to  satisfy  all  parties, 
he  had  resolved  to  appoint  a  commission  of  Cardinals  and  pre- 
lates, to  settle  the  definite  terms  in  which  the  censure  of  the 
"  detestable  and  pernicious  doctrine "  broached  by  Santarelli 
should  be  expressed.  This  promise,  it  need  scarcely  be  said, 
his  Majesty  had  no  intention  to  fulfil.  The  commission  was 
never  issued ;  but  the  expedient  served  its  purpose,  in  termi- 
nating, for  the  time  being,  a  tedious  and  exasperating  contro- 
versy, with  the  further  advantage  of  leaving  neither  one  side  nor 
the  other  in  a  position  to  claim  the  victory.* 

The  insurrection  of  the  Huguenots  in  1627-8  gave  Eichelieu 
a  fair  opportunity  of  finally  uprooting  their  political  power, 
and  destroying  the  dangerous  anomaly  which  the  age  of  the 
Eeformation  had  established  in  the  bosom  of  the  State.  Unfor- 
tunately for  French  Protestantism,  it  had  become  identified 
in  public  opinion  with  disloyalty  and  rebellion.  It  cannot  be 
denied  that  Calvinism  has  a  certain  native  antipathy  to  royalty, 
and  an  equally  strong  affinity  to  democracy ;  and  this  connexion 
had  been  exemplified  in  France  with  such  disastrous  results,  that 
the  cause  of  the  Keformers  no  longer  commanded  any  amount 
of  national  sympathy.  It  was  essential  to  Eichelieu  to  re- 
establish tranquillity  within  the  kingdom,  in  order  to  have  his 

*  Mfmoires  de  Eichelieu,  Liv.  xvii.  Le  Vassor,  Liv.  xxii.  D'Avrigny, 
Me'moires  Cltronolog.,  torn.  i.  p.  390,  el  seqq.  Cretineau-Joly,  Histoire  de  la 
Comp.  de  Je'sus,  torn.  iii. 


312  THE  GALL1CAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VII. 

bands  free  for"  prosecuting  his  schemes  of  external  aggrandise- 
ment. The  national  mind,  disgusted  with  interminable  "  Wars 
of  Religion,"  and  re-acting  strongly  towards  Catholicism,  con- 
curred with  the  minister  to  a  considerable  extent;  so  that 
although  there  were  those,  even  among  Catholics,  who  dis- 
approved his  policy/ he  was  willingly  and  warmly  supported 
when,  in  August,  1627,  he  undertook  the  siege  of  the  Huguenot 
metropolis  La  Rochelle. 

It  was  one  of  those  enterprises  which  form  a  turning-point 
in  the  history  of  nations.  "Many  a  time,"  says  Richelieu 
himself,  in  one  of  his  theological  works,*  "  many  a  time,  while 
I  was  residing  quietly  as  bishop  in  the  neighbouring  town  of 
Lucon,  did  1  meditate  on  the  possibility  of  recovering  La 
Rochelle  to  the  obedience  of  the  king,  and  on  the  means  to  be 
employed  for  the  purpose.  The  idea  passed  through  my  mind 
in  those  days  like  a  dream  or  shadowy  imagination.  But  God 
having  ordained  that  what  I  then  regarded  as  a  chimera  should 
be  taken  in  hand  as  a  serious  reality,  I  employed  myself  during 
the  siege  in  gaining  converts  from  heresy  by  force  of  reason 
and  argument,*  while  the  king  was  transforming  rebels  into 
loyal  subjects  by  the  valour  of  his  arms."  It  is  true  that  the 
Cardinal,  as  became  his  character,  took  measures  for  giving  to 
the  siege  of  La  Rochelle  the  aspect  of  an  ecclesiastical,  as  well 
as  a  military,  undertaking.  He  filled  the  royal  camp  with  a  well- 
disciplined  array  of  priests,  monks,  and  missionary  preachers ; 
and  among  those  who  distinguished  themselves  by  their  energy 
and  success  in  the  campaign,  we  find  the  names  of  the  Bishop 
of  Maillezais  (Henri  de  Sourdis,  afterwards  Archbishop  of  Bor- 
deaux), the  Bishop  of  Mende,  the  Bishop  of  Nismes,  the  Abbe 
de  Marsillac,  and  the  redoubtable  Capuchin  Father  Joseph. 
Richelieu  himself  held  frequent  conferences  with  the  Due  de  la 
Tremoille,  and  had  the  satisfaction  of  witnessing  the  return  of 
that  nobleman  to  the  Catholic  Church.  His  son  Louis  Maurice 
de  la  Tremoille,  Comte  de  Laval,  was  converted  soon  afterwards; 
he  not  only  abjured  Protestantism,  but  entered  into  holy  orders, 
took  the  monastic  vows  in  the  Abbey  of  Charroux,  and  passed 
the  rest  of  his  life  in  the  practice  of  austere  piety.  Nevertheless 


t  See  Richelieu's  '  Me'thode  la  plus  facile  pour  convertir  ceux  qui  se  sont 
separes  de  1'Eglise.' 


A.D.  1627-8.  SIEGE  OF  LA  ROCHELLE.  313 

the  Cardinal  by  no  means  confined  himself  on  this  great  occa- 
sion to  the  peaceful  duties  which  best  accorded  with  his  profes- 
sion. He  presided  every  day  at  the  council  of  war ;  and  in  his 
position  of  Lieutenant-General  of  Aunis,  Poitou,  and  Sain- 
tonge,  he  even  discharged  the  functions  of  Commander-in-Chief 
in  the  absence  of  the  king.  The  Rochellois,  after  resisting 
obstinately  for  fourteen  months,  were  at  length  compelled  to 
capitulate  on  the  28th  of  October,  1628 ;  when  the  king  granted 
them  an  amnesty  for  past  offences,  the  enjoyment  of  their  pro- 
perty, and  the  free  exercise  of  their  religion  in  a  specified  part 
of  the  city.  On  the  1st  of  November  Louis  made  his  trium- 
phant entry  into  La  Eochelle,  and  Mass  was  celebrated  by 
Kichelieu  and  the  Archbishop  of  Bordeaux  at  the  Church  of 
Ste.  Marguerite,  which  had  previously  undergone  the  ceremony 
of  "reconciliation."  It  was  announced  by  proclamation  that 
this  church  would  shortly  be  converted  into  a  cathedral ;  the 
nearest  episcopal  see,  that  of  Maillezais,  being  transferred  to 
La  Rochelle  under  the  sanction  of  the  Pope.  This  was  effected 
by  a  bull  of  Innocent  X.,  dated  May  4,  1648.  All  the  churches 
of  the  " Pay sd' Aunis,"  with  the  ecclesiastical  property  attached 
to  them,  were  ordered  to  be  restored  to  the  Catholic  clergy. 
The  city  forfeited  its  municipal  charter  and  privileges ;  and  it 
was  provided  that  no  stranger  or  foreigner,  no  one  professing 
the  "  pretended  Reformed  religion,"  or  any  other  religion  than 
the  Catholic,  should  hereafter  be  permitted  to  settle  there  as 
a  domiciled  inhabitant.  Finally,  the  Rochellois  were  to  erect  a 
cross  in  the  principal  square,  with  an  inscription  recording  the 
reduction  of  the  city ;  and  every  year,  on  the  1st  of  November, 
a  solemn  general  procession  was  to  be  made  in  thanksgiving  for 
this  signal  mercy.* 

In  the  course  of  the  following  year,  after  the  submission  of 
the  Duke  of  Rohan,  who  had  prolonged  hostilities  in  Languedoc, 
a  definitive  pacification  was  concluded  with  the  Huguenots  by 
the  "Edict  of  grace,"  which  was  promulgated  at  Nismes  in 
July,  1629.  This  act  deprived  the  party  of  its  last  vestige  of 
independence.  The  fortifications  of  all  their  cautionary  towns, 
w  hich  for  so  long  a  course  of  years  had  formed  their  rallying 


*  Memoires  de  Richelieu,  Liv.  xviii.,  xix.    Journal  de  Bassompierre,  torn.  iv. 
Le  Vaasor,  H.  de  Louis  Kill.,  Liv.  xxv. 


314  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VII. 

points  and  means  of  self-defence,  were  to  be  forthwith  destroyed, 
and  hostages  were  to  remain  in  the  king's  hands  until  this 
should  be  accomplished.  In  other  respects  the  conditions  of  the 
edict  wore  an  air  of  moderation  and  clemency.  The  Catholic 
religion  was  to  be  everywhere  restored,  and  recognized  as  that 
of  the  State ;  and  the  Huguenots  were  to  make  restitution  of 
all  ecclesiastical  property  which  they  had  appropriated  during 
the  wars ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  unmolested  exercise  of 
their  religion  was  guaranteed  to  them,  they  were  amnestied  for 
the  past,  and  they  preserved  all  property  lawfully  belonging  to 
them.*  The  Cardinal,  on  proceeding  to  Toulouse,  met  with  an 
enthusiastic  reception  from  the  population  of  that  town,  and 
was  complimented  in  flattering  terms,  not  only  by  the  magis- 
trates, but  even  by  the  Huguenot  ministers.  He  replied  to  a 
deputation  from  the  latter  body,  that  his  station  precluded  him 
from  receiving  them  as  representatives  of  a  Church,  but  that  he 
should  always  be  happy  to  welcome  them  as  men  of  science  and 
letters  ;  that  he  would  endeavour  to  prove  on  all  occasions  that 
the  difference  of  religion  should  not  prevent  his  rendering  them 
every  service  in  his  power ;  that  he  wished  to  make  no  dis- 
tinction among  the  king's  subjects  except  on  the  ground  of 
loyalty,  which  he  hoped  would  henceforth  be  equally  manifested 
in  both  communions ;  it  being  the  king's  desire  to  place  all 
classes  of  his  people  on  an  equal  footing  of  confidence  and 
favour,  t 

Although  the  success  of  this  last  and  decisive  campaign 
against  the  heretics  must  doubtless  be  ascribed  in  the  main  to 
the  skill  and  energy  of  Eichelieu,  there  is  reason  to  believe 
that,  both  as  to  the  original  design  and  its  execution,  he  owed 
much  to  a  brother  churchman  of  a  very  different  spirit,  namely, 
Cardinal  de  Berulle.  De  Berulle  had  entertained  for  years  the 
strongest  conviction  of  the  necessity  of  annihilating  the  power  of 
the  Calvinists,  which  he  regarded  as  the  essential  cause  of  the  evils 
which  for  sixty-four  years  past  had  afflicted  France.  It  was  his  in- 
fluence in  the  Council  of  State  that  finally  determined  the  king 
to  besiege  La  Rochelle ;  contrary,  in  the  first  instance,  to  the 
advice  of  Eichelieu,  who  was  apprehensive  of  a  failure,  and 


*  Le  Vassor,  Liv.  xxvi. 

t  Aubery,  Vie  du  Card,  de  Richelieu,  Liv.  iii.  chap.  11. 


A.D.  1629.  DE  BERULLE  AND  RICHELIEU.  315 

also  hesitated  to  commit  himself  to  measures  which  might  em- 
broil France  with  the  Protestant  powers  of  Europe.*  Such 
considerations  4had  no  weight  with  the  enthusiastic  De  Berulle, 
who  believed  on  this  occasion,  as  indeed  he  did  on  most  others, 
that  he  was  acting  under  a  special  inspiration  from  above. 

In  the  midst  of  no  common  difficulties  and  discouragements, 
he  maintained  a  confident  anticipation  of  success  in  the  end, 
and  exhorted  all  around  him  to  await  patiently  and  stedfastly 
God's  appointed  time.  Richelieu  could  not  refrain  from  occa* 
sionally  asking  his  simple-hearted  colleague,  with  half-con- 
temptuous irony,  to  let  him  know  the  precise  moment  when 
La  Rochelle  would  make  its  submission  to  his  Majesty's  arms. 
De  Berulle  replied,  with  the  utmost  seriousness,  "I  have  no 
positive  intelligence  on  this  head,  but  I  have  my  own  senti- 
ments; and  since  you  require  it,  I  am  bound  to  impart  them 
to  you.  I  regard  La  Rochelle  as  already  secured  to  the  king  ; 
and  I  trust  that  the  event  is  not  far  distant.  I  do  not  expect 
it  from  the  dyke  which  has  been  thrown  across  the  harbour, 
nor  from  the  blockade  by  land ;  but  from  some  sudden  and 
unforeseen  operation.  Yet  in  matters  of  this  kind  one  ought 
to  be  extremely  reserved  both  in  judging  and  speaking,  and  to 
bear  in  mind  that  saying  of  our  Lord  to  his  Apostles,  'It  is 
not  for  you  to  know  the  times  or  the  seasons,  which  the  Father 
hath  put  in  His  own  power.'  These  words  teach  us  to  fall  back 
into  our  own  nothingness ;  but  they  do  not  oblige  us  to  desist 
from  prayer.  I  therefore  beseech  God  importunately  to  shorten 
the  days.  It  is  for  the  sake  of  our  country  that  I  offer  up  these 
prayers  to  heaven ;  and  I  entreat  your  Eminence  not  to  thwart 
them."t  De  Berulle,  when  these  anxious  petitions  had  at  length 
been  granted,  failed  not  to  pay  his  vows  of  thanksgiving  in  the 
church  of  St.  Marguerite  at  La  Rochelle  ;  and  caused  a  painting 
by  the  celebrated  Le  Sueur,  representing  the  Nativity,  to  be 
placed  over  the  high  altar,  the  spot  where  he  had  been  visited 
with  that  ^mysterious  foreshadowing  which  the  late  events  had 
so  completely  verified. 

De  Berulle  lived  to  witness  the  final  pacification  with  the 
Huguenots,  but  was  almost  immediately  afterwards  removed 

*  Tabaraud,  Hist,  de  Berulle,  Liv.  v.  chap.  4. 

"  t  MS.  letter  of  Card,  de  Berulle,  Dec.  11,  1G27,  emoted  by  Taburaud,  Liv.  v., 
chap.  4. 


316  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VII. 

from  his  career  of  earthly  labour.  He  expired  suddenly  at  the 
Oratorian  College  in  the  Rue  St.  Honore  at  Paris,  on  the  2nd 
of  October,  1629.  The  incurable  jealousy  of  Richelieu's  nature 
had  latterly  made  De  Berulle  odious  to  him ;  and  a  suspicion 
arose  that  his  death  was  attributable,  in  some  shape  or  degree, 
to  the  minister's  agency.  Insinuations  of  this  kind  were  cha- 
racteristic of  the  age,  and  unfortunately  were  often  substantiated 
by  facts ;  but  in  this  instance  there  is  no  tittle  of  evidence  to 
clothe  the  fiction  with  any  semblance  of  reality. 


A.D.  1600.  VINCENT  DE  PAUL.  317 


CHAPTEE    VIII. 

FROM  this  summary  of  the  external  policy  of  the  Church 
of  France  during  the  earlier  years  of  Bichelieu's  ministry,  I 
return  to  the  details  of  its  interior  history.  The  reader's  atten- 
tion must  be  claimed,  in  the  first  place,  for  some  new  religious 
institutions  belonging  to  this  period,  which  have  not  been  hitherto 
noticed. 

No  name  more  worthy  of  pre-eminent  honour  and  veneration 
is  to  be  found  in  the  records  of  the  17th  century  than  that 
of  VINCENT  DE  PAUL.  This  celebrated  man  was  not,  like 
Franpois  de  Sales,  the  scion  of  a  noble  house,  but  sprang  from 
the  ranks  of  the  people.  His  parents  were  peasants  of  the 
village  of  Pouy,  near  Dax,*  in  the  Landes  of  Gascony.  Here 
Vincent  was  born  on  the  24th  of  April,  1576.  The  religious 
disposition  and  love  of  learning  which  the  boy  manifested  at 
a  very  early  age  determined  his  father  to  devote  him  to  the 
clerical  profession ;  and  after  receiving  the  rudiments  of  educa- 
tion at  Dax,  he  was  sent  to  study  at  Toulouse.  Here  he  was 
admitted  to  the  priesthood  in  September,  1600.  A  singular 
misfortune  which  befel  him  not  long  afterwards  seems  to  have 
had  the  effect  of  shaping  the  prevailing  character  of  his  subse- 
quent ministry.  In  the  course  of  a  coasting  voyage  from  Mar- 
seilles to  Narbonne,  in  1605,  the  vessel  in  which  he  sailed  was 
captured  by  pirates  from  Barbary.  Vincent  was  loaded  with 
chains,  and  sold  into  slavery  at  Tunis.  In  this  desolate  con- 
dition he  remained  for  more  than  two  years,  enduring  many 
hardships  and  much  cruel  treatment;  but  learning  at  the  same 
time  inestimable  lessons  of  personal  sympathy  with  human 
suffering  and  sorrow;  displaying  a  wonderful  example  of 
humility,  fortitude,  and  resignation  to  the  Divine  will;  and 
effecting  in  the  end  the  conversion  of  his  master,  a  hardened 


*  Or  D*Aoqs,  as  it  was  anciently  written.  The  town,  like  others  in  France, 
was  named  by  the  Romans  from  the  hot  springs  (do  aquis)  with  which  the  spot 
abounds. 


318  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VIH. 

renegade  from  Christianity.  In  company  with  this  man,  who  thus 
became  the  firstfruits  of  his  missionary  zeal,  Vincent  made  his 
escape  from  Tunis,  and  returned  to  Europe ;  and  after  spending 
some  time  at  Rome,  he  arrived  at  Paris  in  1609.  He  was 
charged  with  an  important  confidential  mission  from  Pope 
Paul  Y.  to  Henry  IV.  He  was  now  gradually  brought  into 
contact  with  most  of  those  distinguished  and  devoted  persons 
who  were  labouring  in  various  departments  for  the  reorgani- 
zation of  the  Church  in  France.  With  De  Berulle,  who  at 
that  time  was  laying  the  foundations  of  the  Oratory,  he  con- 
tracted a  close  friendship,  and  resided  under  his  roof  for  two 
years,  not  precisely  as  a  member  of  the  new  congregation, 
but  for  the  sake  of  retirement  and  study  under  the  direction 
of  the  Superior.  After  discharging  for  some  time  the  duties 
of  parish  priest  in  the  suburban  village  of  Clichy,  Vincent 
de  Paul  was  recommended  by  de  Berulle  to  the  count  and 
countess  de  Joigny  for  the  responsible  post  of  preceptor  to 
their  sons.  This  nobleman,  Philippe  Emanuel  de  Gondi,  was 
the  head  of  a  branch  of  that  ancient  family,  and  held  the 
office  of  General  des  Galeres  de  France.  His  wife,  a  daughter 
of  the  Comte  de  la  Rochepot,  was  one  of  the  most  accom- 
plished, intellectual,  and  religious  women  of  the  time.  They 
had  three  sons,  of  whom  the  eldest  became  Due  de  Retz, 
and  general  of  the  Galleys  on  the  resignation  of  his  father  ; 
the  second  died  in  early  boyhood ;  the  third  was  Jean  Francois 
Paul,  the  demagogue  of  the  Fronde,  coadjutor  to  his  uncle  the 
Archbishop  of  Paris,  and  at  length  his  successor  in  that  see. 
Vincent  accepted  the  appointment,  and  his  admirable  conduct 
in  this  new  sphere  of  duty  soon  won  for  him  the  warm  esteem 
not  only  of  the  Count  and  Countess  and  their  family,  but  of  all 
with  whom  he  had  intercourse.  While  thus  employed  at  the 
Count's  chateau  of  Folleville,  he  was  one  day  requested  to 
attend  the  death-bed  of  a  peasant  in  the  neighbouring  village  of 
Gannes,  who  had  expressed  an  earnest  wish  to  see  him.  So 
skilfully  did  Vincent  deal  with  the  burdened  conscience  of  this 
dying  sinner,  that  he  was  induced  to  make  a  general  confession 
of  the  errors  of  his  past  life,  including  certain  secret  griefs 
which  he  had  never  hitherto  had  the  courage  to  reveal.  This 
afforded  him  inexpressible  relief,  and  he  expired  in  peace  and 
hope.  The  occurrence  sunk  deeply  into  the  mind  of  Madame 


A.D.  1617.  VINCENT  DE  PAUL.  319 

de  Gondi,  and  at  her  suggestion  Vincent  de  Paul  delivered  a 
discourse  in  the  church  of  Folleville,  in  January,  1617,  exhorting 
the  villagers  to  avail  themselves  of  the  same  method  of  cleansing 
their  consciences  and  making  their  peace  with  God.  The  result 
was  marvellous.  The  preacher  "  bowed  the  hearts  "  of  the  con- 
gregation "as  the  heart  of  one  man";  they  were  drawn  by  a 
simultaneous  and  irresistible  attraction  to  the  tribunal  of 
penance ;  and  so  great  was  the  throng  of  applicants,  that  Vin- 
cent and  another  priest  who  assisted  him  found  themselves 
unequal  to  the  task  of  hearing  their  confessions,  and  were  com- 
pelled to  send  for  aid  to  the  Jesuit  college  at  Amiens.  Such 
was  the  first  of  those  parochial  "  missions  "  for  which  Vincent 
de  Paul  became  so  famous.  But  his  lowly  spirit  shrunk  from 
the  eclat  which  followed,  as  from  a  dangerous  snare ;  he  felt  it 
necessary  to  relinquish  his  office  in  the  household  of  the  Comte 
de  Joigny,  and  retired  to  an  obscure  town  in  the  district  of 
Bresse,  where  he  devoted  himself  to  the  humblest  duties  of  the 
pastoral  care  among  a  rude,  ignorant,  and  vicious  population. 
Even  here  his  reputation  had  preceded  him,  and  ere  long  he 
found  himself  the  leader  of  a  religious  movement  in  the 
neighbourhood,  which  was  destined  to  bear  solid  and  permanent 
fruit.  It  was  at  Chatillon  en  Bresse  that  Vincent  founded  an 
association  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  "confrerie  de  la 
charite," — the  first  type  of  a  multitude  of  similar  institutions 
which  at  no  distant  date  were  to  overspread  France.  Its 
members  were  females,  whose  duty  was  to  minister,  according 
to  a  fixed  rule,  to  the  necessities,  temporal  and  spiritual,  of  the 
sick  poor,  under  the  direction  of  the  parochial  clergy.  They 
were  called  originally  "  Servantes  des  pauvres,"  a  title  after- 
wards exchanged  for  that  of  "Soaurs  de  la  charite."  These 
sisterhoods  were  soon  appreciated,  and  multiplied  rapidly.  In 
the  course  of  a  very  few  years  Vincent  established  them  in 
upwards  of  thirty  country  parishes ;  and  with  the  co-operation 
of  a  benevolent  widow  lady,  Louise  Legras,  they  were  intro- 
duced into  the  metropolis  in  1629. 

Overcome  by  the  urgent  solicitations  of  the  Count  and 
Countess  de  Joigny,  Vincent  de  Paul  took  up  his  abode  in  their 
family  a  second  time  in  December,  1617  ;  but  his  tutorial 
duties  were  now  scarcely  more  than  nominal,  and  he  was 
enabled  to  dedicate  himself  almost  entirely  to  that  which  he 


320  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VIII. 

regarded  as  his  special  vocation,  missionary  work  among  the 
people  of  neglected  rural  districts.  With  the  assistance  of 
other  priests  of  congenial  spirit,  he  visited  various  parts  of  the 
dioceses  of  Paris,  Beauvais,  Soissons,  and  Sens,  where  the  house 
of  Gondi  possessed  estates.  As  the  sphere  of  these  operations 
widened,  Vincent  and  his  friends  formed  a  plan  for  perpetuating 
them,  by  founding  a  distinct  institution  for  the  purpose ;  and 
the  project  was  realized  in  1625  by  the  munificence  of  the 
Countess  de  Joigny,  who  by  a  legal  deed  of  assignment  gave 
the  sum  of  46,000  livres  for  the  support  of  a  community  of 
missionary  clergy,  of  which  Vincent  was  named  the  first  Superior.* 
The  new  foundation  received  the  sanction  of  the  Archbishop  of 
Paris,  a  brother  of  the  Count  de  Joigny,  on  the  24th  of  April, 
1626 ;  and  the  ancient  College  des  Bons  Enfants  was  made  over 
to  Vincent  as  a  residence  for  himself  and  his  associates.  Letters 
patent  were  obtained  from  the  Crown,  and  Pope  Urban  VIII., 
by  a  bull  dated  January  12,  1632,  erected  the  society  into 
a  congregation  by  the  name  of  the  "Congregation  of  Priests 
of  the  Mission."  The  charter  of  foundation,  which  breathes 
throughout  the  characteristic  humility  of  its  author,  provides  that 
the  ecclesiastics  thus  incorporated  shall  renounce  all  thought  of 
dignified  preferment  and  fixed  benefices,  and  shall  devote  them- 
selves exclusively  to  the  work  of  evangelizing  country  towns  and 
villages, — preaching,  catechising,  hearing  confessions,  and  minis- 
tering to  the  spiritual  needs  of  the  inhabitants,  without  recom- 
pense of  any  kind  whatsoever.  They  were  to  pay  special 
attention  to  prisoners  under  sentence  of  travaux  forces;  and 
they  bound  themselves  not  to  exercise  their  functions  in  towns 
where  there  existed  a  metropolitan  or  diocesan  see,  or  a  "  presi- 
dial "  court  of  justice. 

Vincent  de  Paul  had  only  one  companion,  Antoine  Portail, 
when  he  established  himself  at  the  College  des  Bons  Enfants. 
Six  other  priests  joined  him  in  the  following  year.  Looking 
back,  at  the  distance  of  twenty  years,  on  these  modest  com- 
mencements of  his  work,  lie  says,  "  We  went  forth  in  all  honesty 
and  simplicity,  commissioned  by  our  superiors  the  bishops,  to 


*  The  countess  did  not  live  to  wit- 
ness the  results  of  this  act  of  large- 


one.      After   her  death    her  husband 
entered   into   holy  orders,  and  joined 


hearted  beneficence.     She  died  on  the       the  congregation  of  the  Oratory. 
23rd  of  Juno,  1G25,  at  the  ago  of  forty- 


A.D.  1G32.  VINCENT  DE  PAUL. 

preach  the  Gospel  to  the  poor,  even  as  our  blessed  Lord  had 
done  ;  this  is  what  we  did,  and  God,  on  His  part,  did  what  He 
had  foreordained  from  all  eternity.  To  some  extent  He  blessed 
our  labours ;  and  perceiving  this,  other  good  priests  entered  our 
Society,  not  all  at  once,  but  at  many  different  periods.  O 
Saviour !  who  could  have  imagined  that  the  work  would  ever 
reach  the  state  in  which  we  behold  it  now  ?  If  any  one  had 
told  me  this  when  we  began,  I  should  have  thought  he  was 
mocking  me ;  nevertheless  that  was  the  commencement  from 
which  it  has  pleased  God  to  raise  up  our  great  community. 
Well !  can  that  be  properly  called  human  which  no  human 
being  could  ever  have  conceived  ?  Certainly  neither  I  nor  my 
poor  friend  Portail  ever  dreamed  of  it.  Very  far  indeed  were 
we  from  cherishing  any  such  idea."  * 

The  "  priests  of  the  Mission  "  had  not  long  plied  their  calling 
in  the  outlying  townships  and  remote  hamlets  of  provincial 
France,  before  they  discovered  that  the  pastors  stood  in  scarcely 
less  urgent  need  of  reformation  than  the  flock;  and  that  if  the 
people  were  sunk  in  ignorance  and  vice,  the  main  cause  lay 
in  the  negligence,  incapacity,  and  unedifying  example  of  the 
clergy.  I  have  already  spoken  of  the  general  relaxation  of 
discipline  which  followed  the  civil  and  religious  distractions 
of  the  preceding  century ;  and  of  the  state  of  degeneracy  with 
regard  to  learning,  zeal,  and  morals  into  which  the  parochial 
priesthood  had  consequently  fallen.  All  the  leading  churchmen 
of  the  day  were  anxiously  employed  in  devising  remedies  for 
this  most  serious  evil.  The  Jesuit  colleges  were  beginning  to 
supply  candidates  who  had  undergone  a  regular  course  of  train- 
ing for  the  ministry  with  considerable  care  and  success ;  the 
Oratory,  under  the  direction  of  De  Berulle,  had  taken  root  at 
Paris,  and  was  gradually  extending  itself  into  the  provinces  by 
means  of  affiliated  branches ;  some  two  or  three  diocesan  Semi- 
naries had  been  opened,  and  the  bishops  seemed  disposed  to 
favour  similar  institutions.  But  the  agencies  hitherto  attempted 
were  manifestly  insufficient  to  meet  the  case.  Vincent  cle  Paul 
suggested  the  experiment  of  retreats,  as  methods  of  preparatory 
discipline  for  those  about  to  undertake  the  pastoral  offu-e.  He 
submitted  his  plan  first  to  the  Bishop  of  Beauvai*,  Augustin 


*  Abclly,  Vie  de  M.  Vincent,  Liv.  i.  chap.  47. 
VOL.  I. 


322  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VIII. 

Potier  de  Gesvres,  an  enlightened  and  conscientious  prelate, 
who  gave  it  his  cordial  approval ;  and  it  was  announced  that 
none  would  be  ordained  in  the  diocese  of  Beauvais  without  first 
passing  through  the  course  of  exercises  proposed  by  the  Superior 
of  the  congregation  of  the  Mission,  under  his  personal  direction. 
The  bishop  received  the  candidates  in  his  palace,  and  here,  in 
the  Lent  of  1628,  Vincent  de  Paul,  with  the  assistance  of  two 
priests  of  his  Society,  conducted  the  Retreat,  which  produced  the 
happiest  fruits.  The  scheme,  with  the  encouraging  result  of  its 
first  trial,  was  next  laid  before  the  Archbishop  of  Paris,  who  on 
many  occasions  had  testified  his  high  esteem  of  the  character 
and  labours  of  Vincent  de  Paul ;  and  the  retreats  for  ten  days 
previous  to  the  general  ordinations  were  adopted  in  the  metro- 
politan diocese  by  a  naandement  of  February,  1631.  The  first 
was  held  in  the  Lent  of  that  year  at  the  College  des  Boiis 
Enfans,  where  Vincent  de  Paul  was  then  residing.  At  each 
subsequent  ordination*  from  seventy  to  ninety  candidates  were 
received  in  the  same  institution ;  and  here  the  priests  of  the 
Mission  provided  them  with  board  and  lodging,  and  all  other 
reasonable  comforts,  without  requiring  any  payment  in  return  ; 
this  being  laid  down  as  an  essential  feature  of  the  system. 
The  daily  work  was  divided  into  two  portions ;  in  the  morning 
the  instructions  turned  upon  points  of  moral  theology,  and 
the  practical  functions  of  the  sacerdotal  office ;  upon  laws  di- 
vine and  human;  the  Decalogue,  the  Creed,  the  Sacraments 
in  general,  the  nature,  varieties,  and  effects  of  sin,  the  duties 
of  the  priest  in  the  confessional,  the  Eucharist  as  a  sacra- 
ment and  a  sacrifice,  and  the  various  details  of  the  ritual 
system  of  the  Church.  The  evening  was  spent  in  consider- 
ing the  virtues,  qualities,  and  graces  peculiarly  necessary  to 
the  ministers  of  Christ,  and  the  means  of  cultivating  them ; 
special  stress  being  laid  upon  vocation,  upon  the  priestly 
life,  upon  the  habit  of  mental  prayer,  and  upon  the  dis- 
tinctive character  of  each  order  of  the  ministry.  After  the 
lecture,  the  candidates  were  assembled  in  groups  of  ten  or 
twelve,  as  nearly  as  might  be  of  equal  capacity  and  attainment, 
each  under  the  guidance  of  a  priest  of  the  Mission,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  conferring  together  familiarly  upon  the  topics  which  had 


*  At  this  time  it  was  usual  (o  hold  six  ordinations  in  the  course  of  the  year. 


A.n.  1(532.     RETREATS  CONDUCTED  BY  VINCENT  DE  PAUL.      323 

been  brought  before  them,  and  thus  storing  up  in  the  memory 
materials  for  future  improvement.  Every  effort  was  made  by 
Vincent  de  Paul  and  his  colleagues,  in  the  general  arrange- 
ments of  the  establishment,  to  render  the  sojourn  of  the  candi- 
dates among  them  not  only  edifying  in  the  highest  sense,  but 
also  socially  agreeable.  They  were  treated  not  as  strangers, 
but  as  friends,  on  a  footing  of  cordial  sympathy  and  brotherly 
affection.  Their  wants  and  wishes  were  assiduously  studied ; 
the  members  of  the  Congregation,  with  their  staff  of  lay  as- 
sistants, devoted  their  whole  time  and  thoughts  to  the  comfort  of 
their  guests.  That  under  such  circumstances  the  scheme  was 
eminently  successful,  and  assumed  proportions  of  extraordinary 
magnitude,  cannot  excite  surprise.  From  every  diocese  into 
which  priests  had  gone  forth  with  the  recommendation  of  having 
been  trained  at  the  College  des  Bons  Enfans,  encouraging  testi- 
mony was  received  to  the  signal  benefits  conferred  by  this 
means  upon  the  Church.  The  Bishops  of  Poitiers,  Angouleme, 
Noyon,  Chartres,  Saintes,  and  others,  wrote  to  congratulate 
Vincent  de  Paul  upon  the  zeal  and  ability  of  the  labourers 
whom  he  had  formed  for  the  Lord's  vineyard,  and  to  assure  him 
of  the  high  estimation  which  they  had  won  from  the  faithful  of 
all  classes.  Applications  poured  in  from  all  parts  of  France 
for  a  larger  supply  of  well-qualified  pastors;  demands  with 
which  the  Congregation  of  the  Mission  found  itself  quite  unable 
to  comply  while  restricted  within  the  narrow  bounds  of  its 
original  home.  Most  opportunely  the  way  was  opened,  in  1632, 
for  their  removal  to  a  much  more  spacious  abode,  namely  the 
Priory  of  St.  Lazare  in  the  Faubourg  St.  Denis,  which  was  in 
ancient  times  a  hospital  for  lepers,  but  had  passed  into  the  pos- 
session of  the  Canons  Regular  of  St.  Victor.  The  prior  of  this 
community,  Adrian  Lebon,  offered  to  cede  the  whole  establish- 
ment and  its  dependencies,  upon  very  favourable  conditions,  to 
Vincent  and  his  priests.  They  accordingly  took  possession  of 
it  in  January,  1632,  the  Archbishop  of  Paris  presiding  at  their 
installation ;  and  it  was  from  this  new  acquisition  that  the 
members  of  the  Congregation  derived  the  appellation  by 
which  they  were  afterwards  most  commonly  known,  that  of 
Lazarists. 

Vincent  no  sooner  found  himself  amply  provided  with  space 
and  other  material  appliances,  than  he  expanded  his  field  of 

Y  2 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VIII. 

action  to  a  degree  which  he  had  never  before  contemplated. 
One  of  Ids  first  steps  after  establishing  himself  at  St.  Lazare  was 
to  set  on  foot  a  series  of  "  Conferences ;"  meetings  at  \vhich  the 
clergy  of  Paris  and  other  dioceses  might  consult  together  on  the 
difficulties  of  their  ministry,  and  impart  the  advantage  of  mutual 
experience.     This,  it  need  hardly  be  remarked,  was  a  project 
which  required  peculiar  delicacy  of  handling,  both  with  regard 
to  organization  and  execution.     But  the  character  of  Vincent  de 
Paul,  combining  the  deepest  humility  and  the  tenderest  charity 
with  that  lofty  gift  of  wisdom  which,  more  surely  than  any 
merely  intellectual  endowment,  sways  and  subdues  minds  of  a 
lower  order,  was  precisely  adapted  to  such  an  undertaking  ;  and 
the  results  of  the  attempt  were  in  the  highest  degree  satisfactory. 
The  first  Conference  was  held  at  St.  Lazare  on  the  10th  July, 
1633  ;  and  for  many  years  they  were  regularly  continued  on  the 
Tuesday  in  each  week,  becoming  celebrated  far  and  wide  as 
the  "  Tuesday  Conferences  of  St.  Lazare."     A  code  of  rules  was 
drawn  up  for  the  association  by  Vincent  de  Paul,  of  which  the 
following  were  the  principal  features.     That  the  main  object 
proposed  by  the  members  was  to  honour  the  incarnate  life  of  the 
Son  of  God,  His  everlasting  priesthood,  His  holy  family,  and  His 
love  towards  the  poor ;  to  this  end  they  were  to  study  to  con- 
form their  whole  life  to  His,  to  labour  for  the  glory  of  God  in  all 
the  details  of  the  ecclesiastical  career,  and  especially  by  diligent 
ministrations  among  the  poor.    The  design  of  the  Conferences 
being  to  support  and  build  up  in  practical  godliness  those  who 
should  frequent    them,    their   ordinary   subject-matter   should 
be   the   virtues,   functions,   and    occupations   specially   appro- 
priate  to  men  dedicated  to  the  service  of  the  Altar.     That 
the  members  sought  by  means  of  this  Association  to  become 
more  closely  knit  together  in  Jesus  Christ ;  and  with  a  view  to 
promote  this  sacred  union,  they  were  to  be  assiduous  in  visiting 
and  consoling  one  another,  especially  in  times  of  sickness  and 
affliction ;  that  these  offices  of  sympathy  were  to  be  continued 
not  only  during  life,  but,  so  far  as  possible,  after  death  ;  that  the 
members  were  to  assist  at  the  funeral  obsequies  of  their  departed 
brethren ;  they  were  to  say  three  masses  for  them,  or  to  com- 
municate for  their  intention.     Systematic  directions  were  also 
given  for  the  employment  of  each  portion  of  the  day.   The  priests 
were  to  rise  at  a  prescribed  hour;  to  devote  at  least  half  an  hour 


A.D.  1633.     "TUESDAY  CONFERENCES"  OF  ST.  LAZARE.  325 

to  mental  prayer  ;  to  say  Mass,  and  afterwards  to  read  on  their 
knees  a  chapter  of  the  New  Testament ;  to  engage  in  certain 
spiritual  exercises  before  each  meal ;  to  spend  a  definite  time 
in  external  works  of  charity ;  and  to  conclude  the  day  with  a 
general  examination  of  conscience. 

•  The  biographer  of  Vincent  de  Paul  *  enlarges  on  the  incom- 
parable unction,  the  noble  simplicity,  the  surprising  power  of 
Scriptural  illustration,  the  touching  pathos,  the  almost  super- 
human eloquence,  displayed  by  this  eminent  servant  of  God  at 
his  Conferences.  Nor  does  his  picture  appear  to  be  at  all  over- 
coloured.  It  is  borne  out  by  the  concurrent  evidence  of  numbers 
of  ecclesiastics  who  were  present  at  these  exercises  ;  and  the 
general  influence  for  good  accruing  from  them  to  the  Church  is 
the  common  theme  of  the  historians  of  the  time. 

Bossuet  attended  a  retreat  at  St.  Lazare  in  the  Lent  of  1652, 
previously  to  his  ordination ;  and  of  the  profound  impressions 
he  received  on  this  occasion  he  has  left  a  remarkable  account 
in  a  letter  to  Pope  Clement  XL,  dated  August  2,  1702.  Some 
extracts  from  it  will  be  interesting  to  the  reader.  "  Ille  nos  ad 
sacerclotium  promovendos  sua  suorumque  opera  juvit.  Ille 
secessus  pios  clericorum,  qui  ordinandi  veniebant,  sedulo  instituit. 
Aderant  plerumque  magni  nominis  Episcopi.  Pium  cteturn. 
animabat  ipse  Vincentius,  quern  cum  disserentem  avidi  audi- 
remus,  tune  impleri  sentiebamus  Apostolicum  illud,  '  si  quis 
loquitur,  tanquam  sermones  Dei.'  Nosque  etiam  non  semel 
invitati  ut  consuetos  per  ilia  tempora  de  rebus  ecclesiasticis 
serinones  haberemus,  pium  laborem,  optimi  viri  orationibus  et 
monitis  freti,  libenter  suscepimus ;  licuitque  nobis  affatim  illo 
frui  in  Domino,  ej  us  virtutes  coram  intueri,  pra3sertim  genuinam 
illam  et  Apostolicam  charitatem,  gravitatern,  atque  prudentiam 
cum  admirabili  simplicitate  conjunctam,  ecclesiastics  rei 
studium,  zelum  animarum,  et  adversus  omnigenas  corruptelas 
invictissimuui  robur  atque  constantiam." 

The  effect  produced  by  the  "  Tuesday  Conferences  "  of  St. 
Lazare,  in  raising  the  tone  of  feeling  and  the  practical  standard 
of  duty  among  the  French  clergy,  was  truly  astonishing.  It 
was  not  long  before  they  attracted  the  attention  of  the  all- 
powerful  Richelieu,  who  with  his  usual  penetration  at  once 


*  Collet,  Vie  de  tf.  Vincent,  torn.  i.  p.  333. 


326  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CUAP.  VIII. 

appreciated  their  importance.  He  sent  for  Vincent  de  Paul, 
and  desired  him  to  give  a  detailed  account  of  the  nature  and 
progress  of  his  work,  of  which  he  expressed  his  approval.  The 
minister,  moreover,  took  with  his  own  hand  a  list  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Association,  and  invited  Vincent  to  mention  any 
whom  he  deemed  peculiarly  qualified  to  be  advanced  in  the 
Church.  A  few  were  accordingly  named ;  and  the  Cardinal  did 
not  fail,  as  opportunity  offered,  to  recommend  them  to  the 
king  for  promotion  to  vacant  sees.  After  Vincent  had  retired 
on  this  occasion,  Eichelieu  is  said  to  have  observed  to  his  niece 
the  Duchess  of  Aiguillon,  "  I  have  always  had  a  very  high 
opinion  of  M.  Vincent ;  but  since  my  last  interview  with  him, 
I  regard  him  as  a  totally  different  character  from  what  I  first 
imagined." 

Among  the  earliest  and  most  notable  members  of  this  clerical 
association  were  Adrien  Bourdoise,  afterwards  founder  of  the 
seminary  of  St.  Nicolas  du  Chardonnet ;  Jacques  Olier,  founder 
and  first  superior  of  the  Seminary  of  St.  Sulpice ;  Jean  Duval, 
Bishop  of  Babylone,  founder  of  the  Congregation  des  Missions 
Etrangeres;  Nicolas  Pavilion,  the  saintly  Bishop  of  Alet,  so 
conspicuous  in  the  Jansenist  controversy;  Antoine  Godeau, 
Bishop  of  Grasse ;  and  Louis  Abelly,  author  of  a  well-known 
'  Life  of  St.  Vincent.'  The  institution  could  reckon,  even  during 
the  lifetime  of  Vincent  de  Paul,  the  names  of  thirty-three 
prelates,  whose  life  and  ministry  had  been  moulded  upon  its 
system ;  besides  a  multitude  of  dignitaries  of  lower  grades — 
vicars-general,  archdeacons,  canons,  directors  of  diocesan  semi- 
naries, superiors  of  religious  houses,  and  parochial  clergy. 

Not  satisfied  with  these  labours  for  the  regeneration  of  the 
priestly  order,  Vincent  de  Paul  commenced  the  practice  of 
holding  retreats  at  St.  Lazare  for  the  laity  of  all  classes  and 
conditions,  and  threw  open  his  gates  with  indiscriminate  bene- 
volence to  all  applicants.  Within  a  brief  space  the  antique 
halls  of  St.  Lazare  were  more  densely  crowded  with  patients 
tainted  with  moral  leprosy  than  they  had  ever  been  in  former 
days  with  sufferers  under  physical  disease.  Vincent  compared 
his  abode  to  Noah's  Ark,  where  animals  of  every  form,  species, 
and  character  were  lodged  together  indifferently.  It  was,  indeed, 
a  singular  spectacle.  This  motley  assemblage,  frequenting  the 
same  hospitable  board,  and  listening  to  the  same  salutary  in- 


A.D.  lt>33.  GENERAL  RETREATS  AT  S.  LAZARE.  327 

structions,  consisted  of  noblemen  of  the  highest  rank  and  of  the 
humblest  sons  of  toil  and  penury;  of  enlightened  magistrates 
and  simple  artisans ;  of  courtly  men  of  fashion  and  rude  un- 
lettered peasants ;  of  masters  and  servants ;  of  old  men  heavily 
burdened  with  the  sins  and  follies  of  the  past,  and  of  youths 
seeking  by  timely  self-discipline  to  fortify  themselves  against 
the  struggles  and  temptations  of  the  future.     Vincent  spared 
no   pains  to  render   these  retreats  lastingly  beneficial  to  his 
guests,  whom  he  called  Exercitants.     He  impressed  upon  them, 
as  a  fundamental  principle,  that  the  object  to  be  kept  in  view 
by  each  was  to  render  himself  a  perfect  Christian  according  to 
his  appointed  vocation  ;  a  perfect  student,  if  called  to  a  life  of 
study ;  a  perfect  lawyer  or  magistrate,  if  engaged  in  the  pro- 
fession of  the  law ;  a  perfect  soldier,  if  trained  to  arms ;  and  so 
with  all  other  walks  of  life.     Scrupulous  caution  was  observed 
with  regard  to  those  who  seemed  disposed  to  enter  on  a  con- 
ventual life.     Vincent  never  permitted  such  persons  to  be  de- 
termined in  their  choice  of  a  religious  order  by  any  one  under 
his   control ;    and   under   no   circumstances   were   they  to   be 
encouraged  to  join  the  congregation  of  the  Mission.*     It  has 
been   calculated   that   during   the   latter   twenty-five  years  of 
Vincent's  life,  near  20,000  persons  availed  themselves  of  the 
privilege  of  making  a  "retreat"  at  St  Lazare;   so  that  his 
visitors  averaged  about  eight  hundred  in  each  year.f     Some 
few  of  these  paid  their  own  charges  during  their  sojourn,  either 
in  part  or  in  full ;  but  the  majority  contributed  nothing  at  all, 
either  on  account  of  insufficient  means  or  from  a  mistaken  idea 
that  the  Lazarists  were  bound  by  their  statutes  to  receive  all 
comers  gratuitously.     Large  expenses  were  incurred  in  con- 
sequence ;    and   many  were   the  remonstrances   made    to  the 
Superior  against  what  was  deemed  an  extravagant  and  imprudent 
outlay.     But  Vincent  was  proof  against  such  considerations. 
"  If  we  had  thirty  years  to  live,"  said  he,  "  and  if  by  our  labours 

*  "  Prenez   bien  garde,    Messieurs,  a  se  faire  missionaires ;  mais  alors  dites- 

lorsque  vous  donnez  conduite  a   ceux  :    leur  seulement  qu  ils  recommandent  de 

qui  viennent  faire   leurs  retraites   spi-  plus  en  plus  ce  dessein  a  Dieu;  qu'ils 

rituelles  en  cette  maison,  de  ne  jamais  y  pensent  bien,  etant  une  chose  im- 

leur  rien  dire  qui  tende  a  les  attirer  eu  portante.      Laissous  faire  Dieu,  Mes- 

la  Compagnie ;  c'est  a  Dieu  a  y  appeler,  sieurs,  et  nous  tenous  liumblement  dans 

et  a  en  donner  la  premiere  inspiration.  \   l'attent>;   et  dans   la   depcndance   des 

Quand   memo   its  vous  deeouvriraient  ordres  de  sa  Providence."     Collet,  Liv. 

qii'ils  en  out  la  pcnse'c,   gardez  vous  iii.  p.  501. 

bien  de  les  determiner  de  vous  mcmos  f  Collet,  Liv.  iii.  p.  884. 


328  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VIII. 

iu  this  work  of  Retreats  we  should  shorten  that  space  by  one  half, 
we  ought  still  to  persevere  in  the  same  course.  It  is  true  that 
the  expense  is  great,  but  ouw  funds  cannot  be  better  employed ; 
and  if  our  house  should  become  involved  in  debt,  God  can  find 
the  means  of  extricating  it,  and  His  infinite  goodness  gives  us 
every  reason  to  believe  that  He  would  do  so  in  case  of  need." 

The  institution  of  the  "Filles  de  la  Charite',"  already  men- 
tioned, was  entrusted  by  Vincent  de  Paul  in  1633  to  the  direc- 
tion of  his  devoted  coadjutrix  Madame  Legras.*  This  order 
was  originally  intended  to  minister  to  the  sick  in  country 
parishes,  where  there  were  no  hospitals  at  hand,  and  medical  aid 
could  not  be  easily  procured;  but  in  process  of  time  the  sisters 
were  led  to  undertake  other  departments  of  charitable  labour 
among  the  poor.  They  were  gradually  introduced  into  the 
hospitals,  both  in  Paris  and  the  provinces,  as  nurses  for  the  sick  ; 
they  took  charge  of  the  education  of  foundlings,  and  conducted 
female  schools ;  they  systematically  visited  the  distressed  and 
destit  ate ;  and  they  performed  certain  offices  of  compassion 
even  among  prisoners  condemned  to  the  galleys.  Their  con- 
stitutions, framed  by  Vincent  de  Paul,  abound  with  wise  regula- 
tions and  weighty  admonitions.  The  founder  points  out  that 
although,  from  the  nature  of  their  employment,  they  cannot 
lead  a  recluse  life  like  other  religious  societies,  they  ought  never- 
theless to  be  as  strict  in  their  conduct  as  the  most  austere 
of  cloistered  nuns;  more  so,  indeed,  inasmuch  as  they  were 
more  exposed  to  external  perils  than  those  who  are  altogether 
debarred  from  intercourse  with  the  world.  Their  monasteries, 
he  reminds  them,  would  be  in  ordinary  cases  the  houses  of 
the  sick ;  their  cells,  a  hired  lodging ;  their  convent  chapel,  the 
parish  church  ;  their  cloisters,  the  streets  of  the  city  or  the  wards 
of  hospitals :  their  vow  of  seclusion,  submission  to  their  superior; 
their  grate,  the  fear  of  God;  their  veil,  a  holy  and  rigid 
modesty.  The  other  provisions  of  the  Rule  are  conceived  in  the 
same  spirit  of  practical  wisdom  and  elevated  piety.  After 
Laving  been  tested  by  the  experience  of  twenty  years,  it  was 

*  This  lady  was  the  only  daughter  Kichelieu.     On  her  mother's  side  she 

of    Louis    de    Marillac,    seigneur    of  |   was  related   to   Jean    Pierre    Camus, 

Ferrieres,  and  niece  of  Michel  de  Ma-  Bishop  of  Belley.     Her  husband,  an 

rillac,  keeper  of  the  seals,  and  of  Mar-  officer  in   the   household  of  Mary  de 

thai    de    Marillac,    both    well-known  Medici,  left  lier  a  widow  in  1625.     She 

victims  of  the  inexorable  vengeance  of  died  in  1660,  at  the  age  of  seventy- eight. 


A.D.  1633.        COMPAGNIE  DES  DAMES  DE  CHARITE.  329 

formally  approved  by  Cardinal  de  Retz,  Archbishop  of  Paris, 
in  1655,  and  the  letters  patent  were  registered  by  the  Parlia- 
ment in  the  following  year.  The  soeurs  de  la  Charite, — or  "  sceurs 
grises  "  as  they  are  sometimes  called, — undergo  a  probation  of 
five  years  before  they  are  admitted  to  their  office.  On  this  occa- 
sion they  take  the  three  customary  vows  of  religious  profession, 
to  which  a  fourth  is  added,  pledging  them  to  labour  for  the 
poor.  These  vows  are  made  for  the  space  of  one  year  only, 
and  are  renewable  annually  on  the  25th  of  March,  with  the 
previous  permission  of  the  Superior.  The  refusal  or  suspension 
of  this  licence  is  regarded  in  the  Order  as  the  gravest  of  all 
penances,  and  instances  of  its  infliction  are  extremely  rare. 

A  kindred  association,  also  originated  by  Vincent  de  Paul, 
and  styled  the  "  Compagnie  des  Dames  de  Charite,"  acquired 
great  reputation  and  influence  at  Paris  by  its  energetic  labours 
in  the  service  of  the  sick  and  poor.  Its  members  were  chiefly 
ladies  of  high  rank ;  the  Marquise  de  Magnelais,  a  daughter  of 
the  house  of  G-ondi,  sister  of  the  Archbishop  of  Paris ;  the 
Princess  of  Mantua,  afterwards  Queen  of  Poland  ;  Madame 
d'Aligre,  wife  of  the  Chancellor  of  France;  the  "Presidente" 
de  Goussault,  who  became  the  first  superior  of  the  society; 
Marie  Fouquet,  mother  of  the  unfortunate  finance  minister  of 
Louis  XIV. ;  Madame  de  Lamoignon,  wife  of  the  famous  magis- 
trate of  that  name  ;  Madame  de  Herce ;  and  the  favourite 
niece  of  Richelieu,  the  Marquise  de  Combalet,  afterwards 
Duchess  of  Aiguillon.  At  the  meetings  presided  over  by  these 
noble  matrons  benevolent  schemes  of  all  kinds  were  discussed 
and  organized ;  but  the  principal  duty  for  which  they  made 
themselves  responsible  was  that  of  visiting  the  inmates  of  the 
Hotel  Dieu,  or  central  hospital  of  Paris.  In  this  undertaking 
they  were  zealously  seconded  by  Madame  Legras  and  her 
Filles  de  Charite ;  and  a  detachment  of  the  latter  community 
was  established  for  this  purpose  in  a  house  adjoining  the 
hospital.  On  the  recommendation  of  Vincent  de  Paul,  the 
ladies  formed  two  divisions,  the  first  having  for  its  province 
the  religious  instruction  and  consolation  of  the  patients,  while 
the  second  ministered  to  their  temporal  necessities.  Fourteen 
members  were  elected  every  quarter,  in  the  Ember  week,  to 
compose  each  section ;  they  attended  two  and  two,  by  rotation, 
at  the  Hotel  Dieu,  every  day  in  the  week ;  and  at  the  end  of 


330  THE  GALLTCAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VIII. 

their  terra  of  service  they  made  a  report  to  the  general 
meeting  of  the  Society,  recording  the  course  of  their  proceed- 
ings, with  any  circumstances  which  might  be  useful  for  the 
guidance  and  encouragement  of  those  who  were  to  replace 
them.  It  may  be  well  imagined  that  the  spectacle  of  such 
self-devotion  in  those  whose  birth  had  placed  them  on  the 
highest  steps  of  society,  and  who  were  accustomed  to  every 
luxury  that  wealth  can  procure,  made  a  vivid  impression  upon 
the  inhabitants  of  Paris  in  general,  independently  of  the  direct 
benefits  conferred  upon  the  sufferers  in  the  hospital.  The 
gentleness,  tenderness,  and  persevering  patience  displayed  by 
the  Dames  de  Charite  in  the  discharge  of  their  functions  was 
followed  by  a  signal  reward.  If  we  may  credit  the  biographer 
of  Vincent  de  Paul,  their  success  in  the  work  of  conversion  was 
such  that  in  the  course  of  a  single  year,  and  that  the  first  year 
of  the  Society's  existence,  no  less  than  seven  hundred  and  sixty 
heretics  of  different  persuasions  abjured  their  errors  and  em- 
braced the  Catholic  faith.*  The  annual  outlay  of  the  institu- 
tion in  acts  of  corporal  charity  exceeded  seven  thousand  livres. 

Volumes  would  be  required  to  give  an  adequate  idea  of  the 
multifarious  labours  of  Vincent  de  Paul.  New  establishments 
of  "  Priests  of  the  Mission  "  were  gradually  formed  in  most  of 
the  large  towns  of  France,  and  earnest  application  was  made 
for  their  services  in  various  foreign  countries.  In  1639  they 
planted  a  colony  at  Annecy  in  Savoy ;  in  1642  they  passed  the 
Alps  into  Italy,  and  were  installed  under  the  patronage  of  the 
Duchesse  d'Aiguillon  in  a  spacious  college  at  Home ;  three  years 
later  they  were  summoned  to  Genoa  by  Cardinal  Durazzo  ;  and 
subsequently  the  Queen  of  Poland,  Mary  of  Gonzaga,  the  same 
who  has  been  mentioned  as  one  of  the  Dames  de  Charite,  ex- 
pressed a  desire  for  their  ministrations  at  Warsaw,  where  she 
assigned  them  a  house  and  sufficient  revenues. 

The  Lazarists  were  also  entrusted  with  the  management  of 
diocesan  Seminaries  in  various  parts  of  France;  besides  the 
noble  college  at  their  head-quarters  at  St.  Lazare,  they  suc- 
cessively undertook  the  direction  of  similar  institutions  at 
Saintes,  Le  Mans,  St.  Malo,  Agen,  Tre'guier,  and  Narbonue. 
This  became  one  of  their  most  fruitful  fields  of  labour ;  and  the 


*  Collet,  Liv.  iii.  p.  436. 


A.D.  1633.       OLIER  AND  THE  SEMINARY  OF  S.  SULPICE.        331 

names  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul  and  the  Lazarists  are  inseparably 
identified  with  the  vital  work  of  clerical  education.  The  impulse 
of  their  zeal  raised  up  many  earnest  co-operators  in  the  cause  ; 
among  the  most  distinguished  was  Jean  Jacques  Olier,  a  man 
scarcely  second  to  Vincent  himself  in  saintly  virtue  and  energetic 
devotion  to  the  duties  of  the  ministry.  Olier  was  one  of  those 
pupils  and  associates  of  his  early  days  for  whom  Vincent  had 
always  cherished  special  affection  and  unreserved  sympathy.  On 
being  ordained  priest  in  1633,  he  undertook  an  important  mission 
in  connexion  with  the  Abbey  of  Pebrac  in  Auvergne ;  and  such 
was  his  reputation  for  ability  at  this  early  age,  that  Eichelieu 
offered  him  soon  afterwards  the  appointment  of  coadjutor  to 
the  Bishop  of  Chalons-sur-Marne.  Olier,  however,  declined  it, 
from  a  strong  conviction  that  he  was  called  to  exercise  his 
ministry  in  a  different  capacity, -  namely,  as  a  founder  and 
director  of  Seminaries.  Encouraged  by  Vincent  de  Paul, 
Father  Condren,  Superior  of  the  Oratory,  and  other  experienced 
advisers,  Olier  commenced  in  1641  an  institution  of  this  kind 
at  Vaugirard,  near  Paris ;  and  in  the  following  year,  having 
accepted  the  charge  of  the  parish  of  St.  Sulpice,  he  transferred 
his  college  to  that  locality.  Here  he  ere  long  found  himself 
surrounded  by  a  band  of  zealous  associates,  many  of  whom  rose 
in  due  time  to  the  highest  stations  in  the  Church.  Among  those 
who  are  best  known  to  fame  were  Francois  de  Caulet,  Bishop 
of  Pamiers,  De  Gondrin,  Archbishop  of  Sens,  and  Claude  Joly, 
Bishop  of  Agen.  Besides  his  chief  establishment  at  St.  Sulpice, 
Olier  became  the  founder  of  provincial  seminaries  at  Clermont, 
Le  Puy,  Viviers,  and  Bourg  St.  Andeol ;  and  an  offshoot  of  his 
congregation  was  planted  even  in  the  French  colony  of  Montreal 
in  Canada.  He  abridged  his  life  by  his  excessive  labours,  and 
by  unsparing  asceticism ;  his  death  occurred  in  1 657,  in  his 
forty-ninth  year.  Olier  has  always  been  reckoned  among  the 
most  illustrious  sons  of  the  Gallican  Church.  Bossuet  styles 
him  "  virum  pirestantissinmm  ac  sanctitatis  odore  florentem  ;  " 
he  is  eulogized  by  Fenalon  as  "  vir  traditus  gratisB  Dei,  et 
plane  apostolicus ; "  *  and  in  a  letter  from  the  Assembly  of 
the  Clergy  to  Pope  Clement  XII.,  we  find  him  extolled  as 
"  eximium  sacerdotem,  insigne  cleri  nostri  decus  et  orna- 


*  Corresp.  tJe  F^n€lm,  torn,  iii.,  "Lettres  Diverse*,"  No.  12G. 


332  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  VIII. 

mentum."  The  congregation  of  St.  Sulpice  possessed,  at  the 
epoch  of  the  Revolution,  five  affiliated  seminaries  at  Paris,  and 
twelve  in  the  provinces.* 

Another  successful  labourer  in  the  same  department  of  Church 
restoration  was  Claude  Bernard,  commonly  known  by  the  title 
of  "  the  poor  Priest."  From  the  time  of  his  ordination  he  dedi- 
cated himself  exclusively  to  ministrations  among  the  poor,  and 
sacrificed  for  their  benefit  a. fortune  of  400,000  livres  which  had 
been  bequeathed  to  him.  In  1638,  on  the  auspicious  occasion  of 
the  birth  of  Louis  XIV.,  Bernard  instituted  a  college  for  the 
education  of  priests  at  the  Hotel  d'Albiac,  in  the  Rue  de  la 
Montague  Ste.  Genevieve.  Anne  of  Austria  was  a  munificent 
contributor  to  this  seminary,  by  way  of  thank-offering  for  what 
she  regarded  as  a  signal  token  of  Divine  favour  both  to  herself 
and  to  France.  The  new  establishment  was  entitled  the  "  Semi- 
nary of  the  Thirty-three,"  in  commemoration  of  the  thirty-three 
years  of  the  Redeemer's  life  on  earth.  It  was  confined  to  the 
reception  of  young  students  in  needy  circumstances,  who  would 
not  otherwise  have  been  able  to  meet  the  expense  of  systematic 
preparation  for  the  ministry.  Numbers  of  exemplary  priests 
were  trained  in  this  establishment  for  different  posts  of  labour 
in  the  Church ;  many  of  them  devoted  themselves  with  remark- 
able success  to  the  work  of  missions,  both  at  home  and  abroad. 
Claude  Bernard  closed  his  career  in  March,  1641,  at  the  age  of 
fifty-three.  He  was  succeeded  in  the  government  of  his  seminary 
by  his  faithful  coadjutor  Thomas  Le  Gauffre,  nephew  of  the 
well-known  Ambroise  Le  Gauffre,  professor  in  the  University  of 
Caen  and  canon  of  the  Cathedral  of  Bayeux,  who  had  formerly 
followed  the  legal  profession,  and  was  one  of  the  masters  of  the 
Chambre  des  Comptes,  but  was  won  over  by  the  influence  of  his 
friend  Bernard  to  embrace  a  religious  life  and  enter  the  priest- 
hood. Le  Gauffre  died  in  1646,  when  he  had  just  been  desig- 
nated to  the  see  of  the  new  French  colony  of  Montreal.  He 
possessed  a  considerable  fortune,  and  left  by  his  will  large 
benefactions  to  the  Seminary  of  the  Thirty-three,  as  well  as  to 
other  charitable  institutions  at  Paris. 


Vie  de  M.  Oiler,  Fondateur  du  Seminaire  de  S.  Sulpice,  Paris,  1853. 


A.D.  1604-18.    REVIVAL  OF  THE  BENEDICTINE  RULE.  333 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE  memorable  reformation  of  the  Order  of  St.  Benedict  in 
France  was  originated  by  Dom  Didier  de  la  Cour,  prior  of  the 
abbey  of  St.  Vanne  *  at  Verdun.  After  struggling  with  inflexible 
constancy  and  courage  against  the  torrent  of  degenerate  example 
that  surrounded  him,  he  succeeded  in  inducing  some  of  his 
brother  monks,  and  a  few  novices  who  joined  them,  to  re-establish 
the  Rule  of  St.  Benedict  in  all  its  pristine  severity.  He  was 
supported  by  his  superior  the  Bishop  of  Verdun,  who  was  also 
Abbot  of  St.  Vanne;  and  Pope  Clement  VIII.  issued  a  brief 
expressly  sanctioning  the  movement.!  By  degrees  the  fame  of 
Didier  de  la  Cour  was  extended  far  and  wide ;  and  applicants 
arrived  at  St.  Vanne  from  distant  parts  of  France,  as  well  as 
from  Germany  and  the  Netherlands,  soliciting  the  particulars 
of  his  system,  and  aid  towards  carrying  out  the  same  corrective 
measures  in  other  monasteries.  The  first  abbey  \A  hich  embraced 
the  strict  rule  upon  the  model  of  St.  Vanne  was  that  of  St. 
Augustin  at  Limoges,  where  the  abbot,  Jean  Regnault,  intro- 
duced it  in  1613.  The  spirit  of  ancient  discipline,  once  aroused, 
spread  rapidly  on  all  sides ;  the  abbeys  of  St.  Faron  at  Meaux, 
of  St.  Julien  at  Nouille,  of  St.  Pierre  of  Jumieges,  and  of  Bernay, 
followed  the  example  of  St.  Vanne ;  and  Didier  de  la  Cour,  so  far 
as  the  resources  of  his  house  allowed,  despatched  members  of 
his  reformed  congregation  in  various  directions  to  explain  his 
system  and  superintend  its  inauguration  in  other  convents. 
But  Lorraine,  where  St.  Vanne  was  situated,  did  not  form  at 
that  period  part  of  the  kingdom  of  France ;  and  in  proportion  as 
the  reformed  rule  continued  to  gain  acceptance,  it  was  found 
difficult  and  almost  impracticable  to  combine  so  many  religious 
houses  in  close  dependence  on  an  authority  which  was  seated  in 
a  foreign  country.  It  was  therefore  determined,  at  a  general 


*  St.  Vanne  or  Venne  (Vitonus  in  Latin)  was  a  Lishop  of  Verdun  in  the  sixth 
century.  t  April  7,  1»;04. 


834  THE  C.ALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  IX. 

chapter  of  the  Order  held  at  Toul  in  May,  1618,  that  a  distinct 
Benedictine  Congregation  should  be  founded  in  France,  to  con- 
sist of  the  convents  where  the  restored  discipline  had  been 
already  adopted,  and  of  others  which,  in  emulation  of  their  zeal, 
might  be  led  from  time  to  time  to  take  a  similar  course.  By  a 
special  Act  of  the  same  date,  it  was  ordained  that  the  most 
intimate  friendship  and  sympathy  should  be  maintained  between 
the  two  Congregations;  that  they  should  zealously  promote 
this  by  intercommunion  in  prayers,  sacraments,  and  works  of 
charity ;  and  that  thus  they  should  compose  in  reality  but  one 
corporate  body. 

The  person  mainly  instrumental  in  executing  this  design  was 
Laurent  Benard,  doctor  of  the  Sorbonne  and  prior  of  the  College 
of  Cluny  at  Paris,  who  had  some  time  previously  made  a  journey 
to  St.  Yanne  for  the  purpose  of  renewing  his  profession  according 
to  the  reformed  rule.  He  had  for  coadjutors  several  monks  of 
the  abbey  of  St.  Vanne,  chosen  for  their  piety  and  general  merit 
— Anselme  Rolle,  Colomban  Kegnier,  Adrien  Langlois,  Maur 
Tassin,  Martin  Taisniere,  and  Athanase  de  Mongin.  In  August 
of  the  same  year  1618  they  obtained  letters  patent  for  the 
erection  of  the  new  congregation,  to  which  they  gave  the  name 
of  the  "  Congregation  of  Saint-Maur,"  from  a  venerated  disciple 
of  St.  Benedict,  who  towards  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century 
first  established  the  rule  in  France.*  Be'nard  was  encouraged 
in  his  undertaking  by  various  personages  of  high  station  and 
authority ;  Cardinal  de  Eetz,  Cardinal  de  Sourdis,  the  presi- 
dents Nicolai  and  de  Hennequin,  and  particularly  by  Mathieu 
Mole,  at  that  time  Procureur-General,  afterwards  first  President 
of  the  Parliament  of  Paris  and  Keeper  of  the  Seals.  The  first 
monastery  of  which  the  brethren  of  St.  Maur  obtained  possession 
at  Paris  was  that  of  Blancs-Manteaux,  where  they  were  installed 
on  the  5th  of  September,  1618. f  During  the  next  ten  years 


*  Maurus  founded  the  Abbey  of  by  Hugues  Me'nard,  then  Professor  of 

Glunfeuil  in  Anjou,  which  was  after-  Rhetoric  at  the  same  college,  testifies 

wards  called  by  his  name,  Saint  Maur  to  the  high  estimation  in  which  he  was 

sur  Loire.  held  by  his  contemporaries.  "  Lau- 

t  Laurent  Benard  was  not  spared  j  rentius  Be'nard  Nivernensis,  Prior  Col- 

to  witness  more  than  this  first  step  legii  Cluniacensis,  Doctor  Parisiensis, 

towards  the  accomplishment  of  his  great  non  modo  humaniorum  politiorumque 

object.  He  died  at  the  College  de  ;  litterarum  peritissimus,  sed  maxime  in 

Cluni  on  the  20th  of  April,  1620,  at  the  rebua  ecclesiasticis  monasticisque  longe 

age  of  forty-seven.  His  epitaph,  written  |  versatu?.  Vidit  nascentem  B.  Mauii 


A.D.  1631.  CONGREGATION  OF  ST.  MAUR. 

the  order  made  such  rapid  progress  in  the  provinces,  that  no 
less  than  forty  convents  had  given  in  their  adherence  to  the 
new  system  when  it  was  introduced  into  the  magnificent  abbey 
of  St.  Denis  "  en  France  "  in  1633.  But  the  most  celebrated 
seat  of  the  Congregation  of  St.  Maur  was  the  abbey  of  St.  Ger- 
main  des  Pres  at  Paris — perhaps  the  richest  and  most  powerful 
monastic  foundation  in  the  kingdom.  This  church  and  monastery 
were  originally  built  by  King  Childebert  I.,  in  543,  on  the  site 
of  a  Roman  temple  of  Isis,  in  the  midst  of  some  spacious  meadows 
bordering  the  left  bank  of  the  Seine.  The  abbey  bore  at  first 
the  names  of  Ste.  Croix  and  St.  Vincent,  but  was  afterwards  re- 
consecrated in  honour  of  St.  Germain  Bishop  of  Paris,  who  was 
interred  there  in  the  year  576.  During  the  middle  ages  this 
establishment  acquired  extraordinary  privileges.  It  was  a  de- 
pendency of  the  Holy  See,  and  exempt  from  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  bishops  of  Paris.  The  abbot  was  invested  with  seigneurial 
powers,  possessing  both  the  "  haute  "  and  the  "  basse  justice," 
not  only  within  the  precincts  of  the  monastery,  but  over  a  large 
district  of  the  city,  comprising  the  modern  Faubourg  St. 
Germain,  and  indeed  almost  the  whole  of  Paris  south  of 
the  Seine.  In  later  times  (1667)  an  arrangement  was  entered 
into  by  which  the  jurisdiction  hitherto  vested  in  the  Abbot 
of  St.  Germain  des  Pres  was  transferred  to  the  archbishop  of 
Paris,  on  condition  that  the  Prior  of  the  Abbey  and  his  suc- 
cessors should  be  ex  cfficio  Grand  Yicars  of  the  archdiocese, 
and  that  the  abbot  should  retain  his  jurisdiction  as  ordinary 
within  the  precincts  of  the  abbey.  The  corporate  revenues  of 
the  house  amounted  to  350,000  livres  per  annum,  and  the 
abbot's  income  was  170,000  livres.  This  splendid  appointment 
was  always  held  by  a  person  of  rank,  not  unfrequently  by 
princes  of  the  blood  royal.  Louis  XIII.  conferred  it  in  1623 
on  his  natural  brother  Henri  de  Bourbon  (a  son  of  Henry  IV. 
by  Henriette  de  Balsac),  who  also  held  the  episcopal  see  of 
Metz.  It  was  under  the  sanction  of  this  prelate  that  the 
Benedictines  of  St.  Maur  took  possession  of  St.  Germain  des 
Pres  on  the  14th  of  February,  1631,  and  it  became  thence- 


congregationem,  quam  officio  et  amore  publico    bono    monumenta."  —  Tnssin, 

coluit,  juvit  opera,  ac  seipsura  totuin  Hist.  Lditeraire  de  la  Congreg.  de  S. 

jlli  obtulit  consecravitque.     Multa  sui  Maur. 
ingenii  posterilati  reliquit  atque  edidit 


336  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  IX. 

forward  the  ordinary  residence  of  the  Superior-General  of  the 
Congregation. 

Eventually  the  Benedictines  of  the  Congregation  of  St.  Maur 
became  the  occupants  of  more  than  one  hundred  and  eighty 
conventual  houses  in  different  parts  of  France,  which  were 
divided  into  six  "  provinces  ;"  namely,!.  France.  2.  Normandy. 
3.  Burgundy.  4.  Toulouse.  5.  Brittany.  6.  Chezal-Benoit. 

This  celebrated  body  was  governed  by  a  Superior-general, 
two  assistants,  and  six  visitors,  who  were  elected  every  three 
years  at  a  general  chapter  of  the  order,  held  at  Marmoutiers 
near  Tours.  The  superiors  of  each  monastery  were  also  chosen 
triennially ;  but  the  General  might  retain  office  by  successive 
nominations  during  life. 

One  of  the  chief  objects  contemplated  by  the  Benedictine 
reform  was  to  train  up  a  succession  of  monks  formed  according 
to  the  true  pattern  of  primitive  Monachism.  With  a  view  to 
this  one  or  more  houses  called  Noviciates  were  established 
in  each  "  province  "  for  the  reception  of  young  men  preparing 
to  make  profession  of  religion  ;  from  these,  after  one  year's 
probation,  the  candidates  were  transferred  to  different  monas- 
teries, where  the  two  following  years  were  devoted  to  a  further 
course  of  systematic  training ;  and  these  being  completed,  a 
period  of  five  years  more  was  spent  in  the  study  of  philosophy 
and  theology,  with  particular  reference  to  the  interpretation  of 
Scripture  and  of  the  works  of  the  Fathers.  These  labours  were 
succeeded  by  a  year  which  was  termed  the  year  of  "  recol- 
lection ;"  this  was  prescribed  as  a  special  preparation  for 
receiving  holy  orders;  it  was  to  be  passed  in  strict  retirement, 
and  exclusive  application  to  devotional  exercises. 

During  the  earlier  years  of  its  history  this  noble  institution 
was  directed  with  rare  tact  and  energy  by  the  first  Superior 
general,*  Dom  Jean  Gregoire  Tarisse,  who  was  elected  in  1630. 
His  first  care  was  to  make  a  personal  visitation  of  all  the 
monasteries,  many  of  which  he  found  in  a  state  of  lamentable 
dilapidation,  from  the  ravages  of  the  religious  wars  and  the 
negligence  of  former  abbots.  The  work  of  restoration  was 


*  "  Quoique  d'autres    eussent    gou-  !   c'est  lui  qui  1'a  e'tendue,  et  lui  a  doirae 

veme's  cette  societe'  uaissante  en  qualite'  j   sa  consistauce." — Felibien,  Histoire  de 

de  Presidens,  Dom  Tarisse  paste  pour  Paris,  vol.  ii.  1352. 
en  avoir  ete  premier  Ge'n&ral,  parceque 


A.D.  1630-40.          BENEDICTINES  OF  ST.  MAUE.  337 

commenced  without  delay,  and  Tarisse  had  the  satisfaction  of 
seeing  twenty  Benedictine  houses  entirely  rebuilt,  and  upwards 
of  fifty  more  or  less  repaired.  Under  his  vigilant  rule  many 
scandalous  abuses  were  reformed,  animosities  and  contentions 
were  appeased,  and  strict  discipline  was  re-established.  Tarisse 
was  warmly  supported  in  his  plans  by  Cardinal  Eichelieu, 
who  made  him  a  member  of  his  "  conseil  de  conscience,"  and 
frequently  sought  his  advice.  He  also  stood  high  in  the  esteem 
of  Anne  of  Austria;  and  lived  on  terms  of  confidential  intimacy 
with  Cardinal  de  la  Rochefoucauld,  the  president  Mathieu 
Mole,  and  with  Vincent  de  Paul.  But  perhaps  the  chief  merit 
of  Tarisse  consists  in  his  having  laid  the  foundations  of  that 
illustrious  school  of  ecclesiastical  learning  which  has  secured 
for  the  Congregation  of  St.  Maur  the  lasting  gratitude  and 
admiration  of  succeeding  ages.  Himself  a  man  not  more 
remarkable  for  fervent  piety  than  for  enlargement  of  mind  and 
cultivated  taste,  he  laboured  to  kindle  among  the  reformed 
Benedictines  a  spirit  of  literary  enterprise  and  industry. 
Under  his  direction  libraries  were  established  in  all  the  con- 
vents, and  the  best-qualified  brethren  were  employed  in 
collecting  precious  manuscripts  and  printed  works  on  a  wide 
circle  of  subjects — classical  antiquity,  the  Greek  and  Latin 
Fathers,  the  oriental  languages,  history,  archaeology,  hagio- 
logy — which  had  hitherto  been  very  imperfectly  explored  by 
the  scholar  and  the  critic.  The  impulse  thus  given  to  various 
branches  of  study  wrought  astonishing  effects.  Troops  of 
enthusiastic  students  thronged  the  venerable  cloisters  of  S. 
Germain  des  Pres,  whose  immense  services  to  the  Church  and 
to  the  world  of  letters  have  rendered  their  names  and  fame 
imperishable.* 

Tarisse,  who  had  long  been  suffering  from  the  inroads  of 
a  painful  and  incurable  disease,  resigned  his  charge  in  the  year 
1648,  and  died  a  few  months  afterwards.  But  he  left  behind 
him  at  S.  Germain  des  Pres  men  formed  under  his  own  eye 
and  by  the  power  of  his  own  example,  and  amply  qualified  to 
carry  on  the  work  to  which  his  life  had  been  devoted.  The 
most  conspicuous  of  his  immediate  followers  was  Dom  Jean 


*  See  Histoire  litteraire  de  la  Congregation  de  S.  Maur,  par  Dom  Rene  Prosper 
Tassin. 

VOL.  I.  Z 


338  THE  GALLICAN  CHUKCH.  CHAP.  IX. 

Luc  d'Achery,  a  native  of  St.  Quentin,  where  he  was  born  in 
1609.  He  originally  made  his  profession  at  the  Benedictine 
convent  of  that  town,  but  migrated  in  1632  to  the  Abbey  of  the 
Holy  Trinity  at  Vendome,  which  was  then  in  the  hands  of 
the  Congregation  of  S.  Maur.  Shortly  afterwards  he  was 
induced  to  remove  to  S.  Germain  des  Pres  at  Paris,  and  in 
that  establishment  he  passed  the  remainder  of  his  life.  Here 
the  Superior-general  Tarisse,  quickly  appreciating  his  talents, 
appointed  him  curator  of  the  library ;  and  he  at  once  com- 
menced his  labours  by  drawing  up  accurate  catalogues  of  its 
vast  contents,  among  which  were  manuscripts  of  great  value, 
mouldering  in  the  accumulated  dust  of  centuries  of  neglect. 
The  results  of  his  researches  were  given  to  the  world  from  time 
to  time  in  a  series  of  learned  tomes,  consisting  chiefly  of  works 
never  before  published.  The  most  celebrated  production  of 
D'Achery  is  that  entitled  e  Veterum  aliquot  scriptorum  qui  in 
Gallias  bibliothecis,  maxime  Benedictinorum,  latuerant,  Spici- 
legium.'  Under  this  modest  appellation  he  edited  a  voluminous 
collection  of  materials  for  the  Church  history  of  the  middle 
ages;  chronicles,  acts  and  canons  of  Councils,  lives  of  saints, 
charters  of  religious  houses,  royal  grants,  poetical  pieces, 
letters,  and  a  mass  of  other  documents  which  had  never 
hitherto  seen  the  light.  The  work  extends  to  thirteen  volumes 
quarto.  It  is  to  D'Achery,  moreover,  that  the  Church  is 
indebted  for  the  conception,  and  in  part  for  the  execution,  of 
that  noble  undertaking  which  was  completed  after  his  death 
by  his  associate  and  disciple  Mabillon,  the  'Acta  Sanctorum 
Ordinis  Sancti  Benedict!.'  This  appeared  in  nine  folio  volumes, 
the  first  of  which  was  published  in  1668. 

The  female  communities  of  the  Benedictine  rule  were  by 
no  means  behindhand  in  this  great  movement  of  conventual 
reform.  One  of  them,  the  Abbey  of  Port  Eoyal  des  Champs, 
has  obtained  a  world-wide  celebrity,  not  only  on  account  of  the 
extraordinary  character  of  the  Abbess  by  whom  its  restoration 
was  effected,  but  also  from  its  close  connexion  with  that  con- 
troversy on  the  doctrines  of  free  will,  election,  and  efficacious 
grace,  which  agitated  the  Church  during  the  latter  half  of  the 
17th  century.  For  this  very  reason,  however,  it  is  a  matter  of 
no  small  difficulty  to  disentangle  the  complicated  web  of  this 
eventful  history ;  for  where  party  interests  are  deeply  involved, 


A.D.  1599.  PORT  ROYAL  DBS  CHAMPS.  339 

the  recklessness  of  party  spirit  never  hesitates  to  warp  and 
distort  facts  in  different  directions  in  favour  of  some  foregone 
conclusion.  The  pens  which  have  delineated  Port  Royal  have 
seldom,  if  ever,  been  free  from  partiality  and  prejudice ;  the 
reason  of  which  is  manifest.  Not  only  did  the  great  struggle 
of  which  it  was  the  centre  array  in  two  antagonist  camps  the 
ablest  thinkers  and  writers  of  the  particular  age  which  gave  it 
birth,  but  the  results  of  that  struggle  have  survived  from  that 
day  to  the  present ;  they  are  continually  reappearing  on  the 
surface  of  Church  history;  continually  forcing  themselves  on 
the  attention  of  observant  minds,  under  manifold  phases  and 
varying  designations.  Nor  are  they  matters  of  exclusive 
moment  to  the  Roman  Communion.  Every  section  of  Christen- 
dom, every  school  of  religious  sentiment,  has  its  interest,  more 
or  less,  in  encouraging  this  or  that  view  of  the  disputed  questions 
and  the  exciting,  yet  often  obscure,  transactions  identified  with 
the  story  of  Port  Royal. 

The  Abbey  of  Port  Royal  des  Champs*  was  situated  in  a 
deep  valley  near  the  town  of  Chevreuse,  fifteen  miles  south-west 
of  Paris.  It  was  founded  in  the  year  1204  by  Mathilde  de 
Garlande,  wife  of  Mathieu  de  Marli,  a  cadet  of  the  noble  house 
of  Montmorency,  who  had  set  out  two  years  before  to  join  the 
Fourth  Crusade.  Port  Royal  belonged  to  the  order  of  Ber- 
nardines  or  Cistercians,  which  followed  substantially  the  rule  of 
St.  Benedict ;  and  was  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Abbot 
of  Citeaux.  The  close  of  the  16th  century  found  Port  Royal, 
like  the  majority  of  the  religious  houses  in  France,  in  a  state 
of  scandalous  degeneracy.  Its  professed  rule  was  ignored  ;  the 
nuns  had  ceased  to  observe  even  the  law  of  seclusion ;  the  pre- 
scribed routine  of  daily  devotion  and  ascetic  exercises  was 
exchanged  for  habits  of  frivolous  amusement  and  luxurious 
indulgence.  In  1599  Marie  Angelique  Arnauld,  at  that  time  a 
child  between  eight  and  nine  years  of  age,  was  appointed 
coadjutrix  to  Jeanne  de  Boulchard,  the  Abbess;  and  this 
event,  however  unpromising  in  appearance,  led  to  a  com- 
plete revolution  in  the  state  of  affairs  both  in  that  and  in 
many  other  French  convents,  and  made  them  no  less  distin- 
guished for  exact  regularity  and  high-souled  piety  than  they 

*  Abrfye'dc  THisloire  de  Fort  Royal,  par  M.  Eacine,  de  PAcade'mie  Franchise, 
Parid,  1770.  J>«>imv.  Uaciue,  Hist.  Ecdes.,  torn.  x.  p.  472  ft  seqq. 

z  2 


3-iO  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  IX. 

had  once  been  notorious  for  negligence,  sloth,  and  worldliness. 
It  need  hardly  be  observed  that  the  admission  of  a  girl  like 
Angelique  to  the  cloistered  state  (as  well  as  of  her  sister 
Agnes,  who  at  the  same  time  became  Abbess  of  St.  Cyr)  was  a 
flagrant  infraction  of  the  canons,  though  by  no  means  unusual 
in  those  days.  Immediately  after  taking  the  vows  Angelique 
was  placed  in  the  Cistercian  convent  of  Maubuisson  near 
Pontoise,  of  which  Angelique  d'Estrees,  a  sister  of  La  Belle 
Gabrielle,  the  mistress  of  Henry  IV.,  was  then  superior.  Here 
she  remained  till  the  summer  of  1602,  when,  upon  the  death  of 
the  Abbess  de  Boulchard,  she  proceeded  to  take  possession 
of  her  office  at  Port  Royal,  and  was  consecrated  by  the  Superior 
general  of  the  order,  the  Abbot  of  Citeaux.  On  the  same  day 
she  made  her  first  communion,  having  at  this  time  just  com- 
pleted her  eleventh  year. 

There  were  then  at  Port  Royal  only  eleven  professed  nuns 
(three  of  whom  were  in  a  state  of  imbecility)  and  three  novices. 
The  confessor  of  the  convent  was  grossly  ignorant,  the  sisters 
careless  and  light-minded.  The  Holy  Eucharist  was  celebrated 
in  the  chapel  only  once  a  month  and  on  the  greater  festivals. 
Preaching  had  been  wholly  disused  for  thirty  years  past. 
Masquerades  and  other  unbecoming  exhibitions  were  practised 
during  the  Carnival.  During  the  next  six  years  the  new  abbess 
allowed  things  to  continue  in  the  same  course  ;  but  at  the  end 
of  that  time  her  mind  was  providentially  awakened,  and  re- 
ceived profound  religious  impressions,  through  the  preaching  of 
a  vagrant  Capuchin  friar,  who  visited  Port  Royal  apparently 
by  accident,  and  was  requested  to  occupy  the  pulpit  in  the 
convent  church.  From  this  epoch  (Lent,  1608)  Angelique  dated 
her  conversion ;  and  marvellously  indeed  did  that  event  de- 
velop the  latent  faculties  both  of  her  intellectual  and  moral 
nature.  She  now  determined  to  undertake  a  radical  reforma- 
tion of  the  abbey ;  to  practise  the  rule  of  St.  Benedict  in  all 
its  severity  herself,  and  to  enforce  its  observance  by  those  over 
whom  she  was  set  in  authority.  Her  first  step  was  to  make  a 
solemn  renewal  of  her  vows,  as  she  held  her  former  profession 
to  be  invalid  on  account  of  the  uncanonical  age  at  which  it  had 
been  made.  She  next  caused  the  convent  to  be  walled  in,  and 
exacted  from  the  nuns  a  rigid  compliance  with  the  primary 
obligation  of  seclusion.  Angelique  took  care  to  exhibit  in  her 


A.D.  1618.  THE  ABBESS  ANGELIQUE.  341 

own  person  an  example  of  the  strictness  and  self-abnegation 
which  she  required  from  others.  On  one  remarkable  occasion 
(known  in  the  convent  annals  as  the  "Journee  du  guichet," 
September  25th,  1609),  she  refused  admission  even  to  her  own 
father  and  mother  and  other  near  relatives;  nor  could  their 
passionate  tears  and  angry  remonstrances  induce  her  to  revoke 
this  prohibition.  By  degrees,  though  not  without  stubborn 
opposition,  Angelique  succeeded  in  winning  over  the  whole 
sisterhood  of  Port  Koyal  to  her  own  views.  Her  gentleness 
and  patience,  combined  with  transparent  sincerity  and  stead- 
fastness of  purpose,  were  irresistible ;  and  within  the  space  of 
five  years  she  had  re-established  all  the  rigorous  observances 
of  the  Benedictine  rule. 

The  reforms  at  Port  Royal  became  famous;  emulation  was 
excited ;  and  although  the  work  was  ridiculed  in  many  quarters, 
and  even  condemned  by  several  of  the  Superiors  of  the  Order, 
the  services  of  Angelique  were  soon  put  in  requisition  in  behalf 
of  other  Benedictine  houses,  and  the  movement  rapidly  ex- 
tended throughout  the  north  of  France.  In  February,  1618, 
Angelique  was  commissioned  by  the  Abbot  of  Citeaux  to  assume 
the  temporary  government  of  the  convent  of  Maubuisson,  where 
she  had  spent  some  years  of  her  early  youth.  The  Abbess 
d'Estrees  had  recently  been  removed  from  office  for  gross  mis- 
conduct, and  confined,  by  order  of  the  Parliament,  in  a  peniten- 
tiary at  Paris.  Angelique  repaired  without  delay  to  Maubuisson, 
taking  with  her  four  sisters  from  Port  RoyaJ,  and  laboured 
energetically  to  improve  its  condition ;  but  in  the  course  of  a 
few  months  the  deposed  abbess  found  means  to  escape  from  her 
imprisonment,  and  reappeared  at  Maubuisson  under  the  escort 
of  a  band  of  gay  cavaliers  from  Paris,  with  whose  assistance 
she  forcibly  'expelled  Angelique  and  her  nuns,  and  resumed  her 
place  as  abbess.  She  was  speedily  recaptured  by  a  guard  of 
soldiers  under  the  "  Prevot  de  1'Isle  "  in  person,  and  once  more 
consigned  to  prison.  Angelique  was  now  reinstated  in  peace- 
able possession  of  the  convent,  and  remained  there  for  nearly 
five  years,  during  which  time  she  carried^but  her  plans  of 
reformation  with  eminent  success,  particularly  by  introducing 
many  fresh  nuns  of  a  poorer  class,  whom  she  trained  assiduously 
on  her  own  system. 

During  her  sojourn  at  Maubuisson  the  Abbess  Angelique 


342  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  IX. 

became  acquainted  with  St.  Francois  do  Sales,  who  had  come  to 
Paris  in  1618  on  a  mission  from  his  sovereign  the  Duke  of  Savoy, 
to  demand  the  hand  of  the  Princess  Christine,  sister  of  Louis 
XIII.,  for  the  Prince  of  Piedmont.  The  Bishop  of  Geneva  visited 
both  Maubuisson  and  Port  Royal,  and  at  the  latter  convent 
administered  the  Sacrament  of  Confirmation.  Relations  of  con- 
fidential friendship  were  ere  long  established  between  him  and 
the  abbess ;  she  placed  herself  under  his  spiritual  guidance, 
and  corresponded  with  him  constantly  until  his  death.*  That 
event  took  place  on  his  journey  back  to  his  diocese  from  this 
last  visit  to  the  French  capital,  on  the  28th  of  December,  1622. 
Through  St.  Franqois  Angelique  was  also  brought  into  close 
communication  with  Madame  de  Chantal,  who,  in  1619,  opened 
a  convent  of  the  Visitandines  at  Paris.  These  two  highly-gifted 
women  were  not  long  in  learning  to  appreciate  each  other,  and 
there  ensued  between  them  a  correspondence  which  was  kept 
up  uninterruptedly  for  more  than  twenty  years,  to  their  great 
mutual  comfort  and  edification. 

In  addition  to  her  work  at  Maubuisson,  Angelique  Arnauld 
became  the  instrument  of  revived  discipline  at  the  Benedictine 
houses  of  Le  Lys,  near  Melun ;  St.  Aubin  and  Gonierfontaine, 
in  Normandy ;  and  the  lies  d'Auxerre  and  Tard,  in  Burgundy. 
Detachments  of  nuns  were  sent  from  Port  Royal  to  undertake 
these  charitable  missions  as  opportunity  offered  ;  and  Angelique 
found  a  zealous  auxiliary  in  her  sister  Agnes,  Abbess  of  St.  Cyr, 
who  supplied  her  place  as  coadjutrix  at  Port  Royal  during  her 
absence.  An  abbess  of  respectable  character  having  at  length 
been  nominated  to  Maubuisson,  Angelique  finally  quitted  that 
convent  and  returned  to  Port  Royal  in  March,  1623,  attended 
by  a  train  of  twenty-five  nuns,  who  had  taken  the  vows  during 
her  residence  there,  and  whom  she  had  inspired  with  such 
affectionate  attachment  that  they  refused  to  leave  her.  Such 
was  now  the  flourishing  state  of  the  community  governed  by 
Angelique,  that  Port  Royal  no  longer  afforded  the  accommoda- 
tion necessary  for  their  numbers;  the  convent,  moreover,  was 


*  During     a     sermon    which     he  j   replied  the  prelate,  "  God  has  revealed 

preached  at  Port  Royal,  St.  Fran§ois  to  me  that  your  house  will  fall  away 

was  suddenly  overcome  by  deep  emo-  from  the  Faith.    The  only  way  to  pre- 

tion,  and  was  obliged  to  pause  for  some  serve  it  is  to  be  obedient  to  the  Holy 

moments.     The  abbess  afterwards   in-  See." — Vie  de  S.  Francois*  de  S.  par  le 

«]iiired   the  cause:    "Alas,   Madame, '  Cure  de  S.  Sulpicc,  torn.  ii.  p.  216. 


A.D.  1626. 


PORT  ROYAL  DE  PARIS. 


343 


in  a  damp,  unhealthy  situation,  where  the  inmates  suffered 
much  from  the  defective  drainage.  Angelique  was  induced 
by  these  causes  to  obtain  permission  to  transfer  the  establish- 
ment to  Paris.  Through  the  kind  liberality  of  her  mother, 
Madame  Arnauld,  and  other  ladies  of  distinction,  a  large 
house  in  the  Faubourg  S.  Jacques  was  appropriated  to  their 
use  ;*  and  thither  Angelique  removed,  with  her  whole  sister- 
hood of  eighty-four  nuns,  in  the  year  1626.  Their  ancient 
habitation,  thenceforth  known  as  Port  Royal  des  Champs,  was 
left  in  charge  of  a  single  chaplain,  to  celebrate  divine  offices ; 
and  it  subsequently  became  the  residence  of  that  illustrious 
company  of  recluses,  whose  names  will  be  familiar  to  the  latest 
posterity  as  "  Messieurs  de  Port  Royal." 

Further  measures  were  adopted  not  long  afterwards,  which  had 
an  important  bearing  on  the  destinies  of  Port  Royal.  In  1627, 
a  brief  was  procured  from  Pope  Urban  VIII.,  by  which  the  con- 
vent was  withdrawn  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Abbot  of  Citeaux, 
and  placed  under  that  of  the  diocesan,  the  Archbishop  of  Paris. 
The  step  was  taken  from  the  most  disinterested  motives ;  but  it 
proved,  as  the  sequel  will  show,  the  source  of  some  of  the  heaviest 
trials  which  befel  the  community  in  its  days  of  persecution. 
Another  object  which  Angelique  had  much  at  heart  was  accom- 
plished in  1629 :  when  Louis  XIII,  renounced  by  letters  patent 
the  right  of  the  Crown  to  nominate  the  superiors  of  Port  Royal, 
and  ordained  that  for  the  future  the  appointment  should  be 
made  by  election,  and  triennially.  The  necessary  formalities 
having  been  completed,  Angelique  Arnauld  divested  herself  of 
her  abbatial  dignity  in  the  presence  of  the  official  of  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Paris,  in  July,  1630 ;  her  sister  Agnes  resigning  at 
the  same  time  the  office  of  coadjutrix,  on  the  express  condition 
that  the  reforms  already  introduced  at  the  convent  should  be 
strictly  maintained.  The  first  election  under  the  new  arrange- 
ments took  place  on  the  23d  of  July,  when  Marie  Genevieve  le 
Tardif  was  chosen  Abbess,  and  retained  the  appointment,  by  a 
re-election  three  years  afterwards,  till  1636. 

Up  to  this  time  Port  Royal  had  not  contracted  any  peculiar 
theological  bias.  During  the  earlier  period  of  her  career,  the 


*  The  Convent  of  Port  Eoyal  de 
Paris,  after  having  served  as  a  prison 
for  the  aristocratic  detenus  of  the  Revo- 


lution, is  at  the  present  day  the  "  H6pi- 
tal  de  la  Maternite,"  or  Lyiiig-iu 
Hospital. 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  IX. 

opinions  of  Angelique  and  her  associates  were  mainly  influenced 
by  the  teaching  of  St.  Franpois  de  Sales ;  whose  views  of  the 
mysterious  doctrines  of  Grace  were  such  as  might  be  expected 
from  his  own  generous  and  warm-hearted  nature,  as  well  as  from 
his  dispassionate  study  of  the  divinity  of  all  schools  and  all  ages, 
which  preserved  him  from  the  snares  of  sectarian  extravagance. 
St.  Franpois  had  learned  to  regard  human  nature,  notwithstand- 
ing its  fall  from  original  righteousness,  as  still  instinctively 
disposed  to  love  God  and  goodness ;  but  although  disposed,  he 
knew  that  man  is  not  able  to  love  God  as  he  ought  without  the 
aid  of  supernatural  grace.  The  human  will,  he  taught,  although 
degenerate,  yet  possesses  the  faculty  of  co-operating  with  Divine 
grace  ;  according  to  the  text  "  Whosoever  hath,  to  him  shall  be 
given,  and  he  shall  have  more  abundance."  "  It  is  certain,"  thus 
he  expresses  himself  in  the  '  Traite  sur  1'amour  de  Dieu,'  "  it  is 
certain  that  to  him  who  is  faithful  in  a  little,  and  performs  what 
lies  in  his  power,  the  loving-kindness  of  God  never  denies  His 
assistance  to  carry  him  forward  more  and  more."  *  During  the 
violent  discussions  which  arose  from  the  work  of  the  Jesuit 
Molina,  'De  liberi  arbitrii  cum  gratia?  donis  concordia/  St. 
Franpois  de  Sales  maintained  a  discreet  reserve,  declining,  when 
consulted,  to  commit  himself  on  either  side ;  and  with  the 
wisdom  of  this  course  he  had  full  reason  to  be  satisfied,  when, 
after  the  protracted  debates  of  the  Congregation  "  de  Auxiliis," 
which  occupied  no  less  than  eleven  years,  the  supreme  autho- 
rity of  the  Church  adjourned  the  question  indefinitely,  and 
refrained  from  pronouncing  any  positive  decision.  The  time, 
however,  was  now  approaching,  when  this  interminable  contro- 
versy was  to  be  revived  under  new  auspices.  Fresh  champions 
were  ready  to  descend  into  the  lists,  whose  resources,  resolution, 
and  enthusiasm  promised  anything  rather  than  a  speedy  adjust- 
ment of  their  quarrel.  After  the  death  of  St.  Francois  de  Sales, 
the  community  of  Port  Royal  selected  as  their  spiritual  adviser 
Zamet,  Bishop  of  Langres,  a  prelate  who  in  early  life  had  made 
a  figure  in  the  brilliant  circles  of  the  court,  but  had  latterly 
renounced  his  worldly  habits,  and  was  distinguished  for  his 
devotion  to  the  duties  of  the  pastoral  care.  Zamet,  in  conjunc- 


*  See  his  Letter  to  the  Jesuit  Lessius,  quoted  by  Cre'tineau-Joly,  Hist,  de  la 
Comp.  de  Je'sus,  torn.  iii.  p.  23. 


A.D.  1630.  MAISON  DU  SAINT  SACBftlENT.  345 

tion  with  the  Duchess  of  Longueville,  formed  the  project  of  a 
religious  house  dedicated  to  the  perpetual  adoration  of  our 
Lord  in  the  Sacrament  of  the  Eucharist ;  and  having  obtained  a 
bull  for  the  purpose  from  Home,  and  letters  patent  from  the 
Crown  (which  were  granted  with  much  difficulty  in  1630)  he 
commenced  the  work  in  a  hired  house  in  the  Rue  Coquilliere, 
and  placed  Angelique  at  the  head  of  the  institution.  Her  sister 
Agnes,  who  likewise  became  an  inmate  of  the  "  Maison  du  Saint 
Sacrement,"  composed,  for  her  private  edification,  a  little  book 
entitled  '  Le  Chapelet  secret  du  S.  Sacrement.'  It  was  divided 
into  sixteen  heads,  corresponding  with  the  number  of  centuries 
since  the  institution  of  the  Eucharist ;  and  contained  under  each 
head  some  spiritual  meditations  suggested  by  one  of  the  attri- 
butes or  offices  of  the  Divine  Redeemer.  This  production  was 
greatly  admired  by  the  sisters,  several  of  whom  copied  it  for 
their  own  use ;  and  in  course  of  time,  having  been  approved  by 
the  Bishop  of  Langres,  it  appeared  in  print.  A  keen  controversy 
arose  upon  its  merits.  It  was  attacked  by  Father  Binet,  a  Jesuit ; 
and  Jean  du  Verger  de  Hauranne,  Abbot  of  St.  Cyran,  who  had 
already  made  himself  known  as  an  opponent  of  that  Society, 
employed  his  pen  in  its  defence.  It  is  insinuated,  indeed,  by 
D'Avrigny  and  others  of  his  school,  that  the  authorship  of  the 
*  Chapelet  secret '  belonged  to  St.  Cyran  himself ;  so  closely 
does  it  correspond  with  his  known  sentiments  and  style.  But 
for  this  surmise  there  is  no  foundation.  St.  Cyran  was  at  that 
time  a  total  stranger  to  Port  Royal.  The  manual  was  condemned 
by  Duval  and  seven  other  doctors  of  the  Sorbonne  (June  18, 
1633)  as  containing  much  that  was  erroneous,  extravagant,  and 
even  impious;  whereupon  St.  Cyran,  to  counterbalance  this 
censure,  procured  an  approbation  of  the  work  from  his  friend 
Jansenius,  Bishop  of  Ypres,  and  from  another  well-known  doctor 
of  the  University  of  Louvain.  Theologians  being  thus  divided 
in  opinion,  the  question  was  referred  to  Rome ;  and  the  Sovereign 
Pontiff  pronounced  that  the  volume  was  not  deserving  of  censure 
on  the  score  of  false  doctrine,  but  that  it  was  expedient,  never- 
theless, to  withdraw  it  from  circulation,  lest  it  might  be  misused 
by  the  simple  and  inexperienced  to  their  injury.  The  '  Chapelet 
secret '  was  accordingly  suppressed.  The  chief  interest  of  this 
occurrence  consists  in  its  having  been  the  means  of  bringing  the 
Abbe  de  St.  Cyran  into  connexion  with  Angelique  Arnauld  and 


346 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  IX. 


the  Society  of  Port  Royal; — a  connexion  from  which  may  be 
dated  the  rise  of  Jansenism  in  the  Church  of  France.*  The 
Bishop  of  Langres,  delighted  with  the  versatile  talents  and 
acquirements  displayed  by  St.  Cyran,  took  the  first  opportunity 
of  introducing  him  to  the  sisterhood  of  the  St.  Sacrement ;  and 
in  the  following  year,  1636,  on  the  return  of  Angelique  to  Port 
Royal  de  Paris,  the  Abbe  was  formally  installed  as  director  of 
the  community.  It  would  be  premature  to  enter  farther  into 
the  details  of  this  portion  of  our  narrative  until  other  events 
have  been  reviewed,  which  will  serve  to  show  how  closely  Port 
Royal  is  identified  with  the  general  stream  of  the  ecclesiastical 
history  of  the  time. 


*  "Une  doctrine  de  re'fonne  morale 
ne  vaut  que  par  1'application,  et  ne 
compte  dans  le  monde  que  du  jour  oil 
elle  se  realise  dans  une  groupe  qui 
croit  et  pralique.  Saint  Cyran  trouva 
enfin  un  terrain  propice.  II  s'e'tait  ren- 
contre avec  une  femme  qui,  en  dthors 
des  querelles  dogmatiques,  avait  tente' 


de  re'aliser,  depuis  vingt  cinq  ans,  au 
fond  de  son  cloitre,  cette  transformation 
des  ames  qu'il  revait.  De  1635  a  1636 
la  Mere  Ange'lique  passa,  avec  ses 
Be'ne'dictines,  sous  la  direction  spi- 
rituelle  de  Saint  Cyran.  Des  lors  celui- 
ci  eut  une  base  d'operations."  —  H. 
Martin,  Hist,  de  Fr.,  loin.  xii.  p.  83. 


A.D.  1635.        ECCLESIASTICAL  POLICY  OF  RICHELIEU.  347 


CHAPTEE    X. 

KICHELIEU  displayed,  in  his  administration  of  ecclesiastical 
affairs,  the  same  qualities  which  characterized  his  civil  policy ; — 
the  same  all-grasping  ambition,  the  same  penetrating  discern- 
ment of  the  capacities  and  tendencies  of  others,  the  same  im- 
placable vindictiveness,  the  same  determination  to  uphold  with 
a  high  hand  the  independent  nationality  of  France.  It  was 
clear,  from  the  outset  of  his  ministry,  that  he  was  not  one  to 
allow  himself  to  be  embarrassed  by  ordinary  scruples,  either 
in  the  shaping  of  his  public  measures  or  with  regard  to  personal 
interests.  Though  a  prince  of  the  Church,  he  was  not  unfre- 
quently  in  a  state  of  open  variance  with  the  Court  of  Eome. 
These  differences  had  their  origin  in  his  own  inordinate 
greediness  of  power.  One  of  his  first  acts  was  to  solicit  the 
appointment  of  perpetual  Legate  of  the  Holy  See,  which  had 
formerly  been  held  by  the  Cardinal  of  Amboise,  prime  minister 
of  Louis  XII. ;  but  his  arrogant  character  had  already  inspired 
the  Pope  with  jealousy,  and  no  disposition  was  shown  to  gratify 
him.  The  coveted  dignity  was  offered  to  him  for  three  months, 
but  this  he  would  not  condescend  to  accept.*  He  next  applied 
for  the  inferior  office  of  Legate  of  Avignon;  but  here  again 
he  met  with  a  mortifying  refusal.  Further  causes  of  irritation 
followed.  The  Cardinal,  as  we  have  seen,  had  no  hesitation  in 
preferring  the  Protestant  to  the  Catholic  alliance,  when  he 
judged  that  course  more  conducive  to  the  advantage  of  France, 
and  the  general  maintenance  of  the  balance  of  power  in 
Europe.  This  offence  naturally  made  him  distrusted  at  Home, 
and  his  views  were,  in  consequence,  thwarted  so  far  as  this 
could  be  done  without  risking  a  serious  rupture.  Richelieu  was 
already  Abbot  of  Cluny,  one  of  the  highest  and  most  lucrative 
preferments  in  the  French  Church.  In  1635  he  was  named 
Superior-General  of  Citeaux,  on  the  resignation  of  the  Abbot 


*  D'Avrigny,  Mtfmoires,  torn.  ii.  p.  133 . 


348  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  X. 

Nivelles,  who  earnestly  recommended  him  as  his  successor,  on 
the  score  of  his  zeal  for  the  reformation  of  the  monastic  system. 
A  similar  honour  was  conferred  upon  him  by  the  Premonstra- 
tensian  Order ;  so  that  these  proceedings,  if  confirmed,  would 
have  united  in  his  hands  the  government  of  three  of  the 
most  powerful  Societies  in  Europe.  But  opposition  was  made 
by  some  of  the  subordinate  houses,  both  in  France  and  else- 
where: and  Urban  VIII.,  nothing  loth,  refused  the  bulls  of 
institution.  He  also  negatived  a  proposal  made  by  Richelieu 
to  reform  the  Order  of  Cluny  by  incorporating  it  with  the 
newly-formed  Congregation  of  St.  Maur.*  Another  grievance 
much  resented  by  the  minister  was  the  Pope's  obstinate  refusal 
to  bestow  a  cardinal's  hat  on  his  confidential  friend  and  agent, 
the  Capuchin  Father  Joseph. 

Matters  became  complicated  by  fresh  affronts  and  misunder- 
standings. The  Roman  Chancery  had  lately  grown  extortionate 
in  its  pecuniary  demands  on  promotion  to  episcopal  sees,  and 
in  assessing  that  most  unpopular  impost,  the  aunates.  It  had 
been  also  ordered  that  the  testimonials  of  character  (informa- 
tions de  vie  et  de  mceurs),  required  by  Church  dignitaries 
nominated  by  the  Crown,  should  be  sought,  not,  as  heretofore, 
from  the  diocesan  ordinaries,  but  from  the  Apostolic  Nuncio, — 
in  manifest  derogation  of  the  "  Gallican  liberties."  t  From 
these  causes  several  French  sees  had  remained  long  vacant,  the 
bishops-designate  being  unable  to  obtain  the  necessary  Papal 
mandate  for  their  consecration.:}:  These  difficulties  were  in- 
creased by  the  fact  that  the  office  of  "Protector  of  France"  at 
Rome,  though  nominally  held  by  Cardinal  Antonio  Barberini, 
was  practically  in  abeyance,  since  the  Pope  would  not  allow  his 
nephew  to  discharge  the  duties  belonging  to  it.§ 

Richelieu  instigated  the  clergy  to  complain  loudly  of  these 
and  other  abuses.  It  was  suggested  that  the  proper  remedy 
was  the  convocation  of  a  National  Council,  to  settle  by  its 
own  authority  the  internal  concerns  of  the  Gallican  Church. 
Canonical  appointments  might  be  made,  it  was  urged,  without 


*  Me'moires  de  Richelieu,  Liv.  xxviii. 

t  Me'moires  d'Omer    Talon,   torn.   i. 

(Petitot.)      Auhery,    Hist    du    Card. 


Lettre  ccxlvii. 

§  Me'moires  de  Richelieu,  Liv.  xxix. 
Lcvassor,  Hist,  de  Louis  XIII.,  Liv. 


Mazarin,  Liv.  i.  xxxvi.     Lettres  du  Card,  de  Richelieu. 

See  Richelieu's  letter  to  the  Pope,      Lett,  ccxliv.    Au  Marechal  de  Crequi. 


A.D.  1636-9. 


OUTCRY  FOR  A  GALLICAN  SYNOD. 


349 


the  formality  of  institution  by  the  Pope ;  and  his  Holiness 
ought  to  be  plainly  informed  that,  if  the  bulls  for  the  vacant 
sees  were  not  at  once  forthcoming,  France  would  dispense  with 
them  altogether.  It  appears,  indeed,  that  an  Order  of  Council 
was  made  and  signed,  forbidding  the  king's  subjects  to  apply 
in  future  to  the  Court  of  Kome  for  any  such  purposes.  But 
the  Parliament,  for  some  technical  reason,  objected  to  register 
it ;  and  the  Nuncio,  through  the  good  offices  of  Father  Joseph, 
succeeded  in  obtaining  a  postponement  of  the  measure  until 
fresh  instructions  should  arrive  from  the  Pope,  whom  he  repre- 
sented as  willing  to  give  the  king  satisfaction.* 

The  outcry  for  a  Gallican  Synod,  however,  continued;  and 
it  began  to  be  hinted  that  such  an  assembly  might  judge  it 
expedient  to  take  further  steps  towards  readjusting  the  rela- 
tions between  France  and  Rome.  It  might  go  so  far  as  to 
annul  the  Concordat  of  Bologna,  renounce  subjection  to  the 
Pope  beyond  acknowledging  the  primacy  of  his  see,  and  place 
France  under  the  government  of  an  independent  Patriarch. 
Grotius,  who  was  at  Paris  at  the  time  in  the  capacity  of  Envoy 
from  the  Queen  of  Sweden,  mentions,  in  one  of  his-  letters  to 
the  Chancellor  Oxenstiern,  that  such  a  report  was  in  circula- 
tion; and  adds  that  it  was  generally  believed  that  Richelieu 
himself  would  be  raised  to  this  new  ecclesiastical  dignity.! 
That  the  idea  was  canvassed,  at  this  moment  of  excitement,  is 
certain;  but  it  is  not  likely  that  the  Cardinal  ever  had  any 
serious  intention  of  putting  it  in  execution. 

As  if  to  aggravate  these  bitter  feelings,  an  outrage  was 
offered  about  the  same  time  to  the  French  ambassador  at  Rome 
in  the  person  of  one  of  his  servants,  who  was  killed  in  an  affray 
with  the  police.  The  Pope,  too,  showed  his  ill-will  by  refusing  to 
perform  the  accustomed  funeral  service  on  the  death  of  Cardinal 
de  la  Valette,  one  of  Richelieu's  most  devoted  adherents.  Louis 
and  his  minister  retaliated  at  once  by  forbidding  the  Papal 
Nuncio  Scoti  to  appear  at  Court,  and  commanding  the  bishops 
and  clergy  to  hold  no  communication  with  him  till  further  orders. 
The  ambassador  D'Estiees  was,  in  like  manner,  instructed  to 
break  off  all  intercourse  with  the  Pope  and  his  ministers.^ 


*  Le  Vassor,  Hist,  de  Louis  XIII., 
Liv.  xliii. 
t  Grotius  to  the  Chancellor  of  Swe- 


den, Epist.  982. 

J  D'Avrigny,  Memoires,  torn.  ii.  p. 
136.     Oiner  Talon,  MSmoires,  torn.  i. 


350  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  X. 

The  publication  of  the  famous  work  of  the  brothers  Du- 
puy,  entitled  '  Preuves  des  libertes  de  1'Eglise  Gallicane,'  was 
another  circumstance  which,  occurring  at  this  juncture,  served 
to  widen  the  breach  between  the  courts  of  France  and  Home. 
It  appeared  at  first  anonymously ;  but  the  name  of  the  author 
was  no  secret,  and  he  was  known  to  write  under  the  patronage 
and  protection  of  Richelieu.  The  book  was  based  upon  the 
treatise  of  Pierre  Pithou,  but  contained  a  vast  additional  col- 
lection of  documents  from  various  sources,  which,  instead  of 
establishing  the  franchises  of  the  Church,  illustrated  the  tyran- 
nical excesses  and  unlawful  assumptions  of  the  Crown.  Every 
case  was  carefully  enumerated  in  which  the  authority  of  the 
Pope,  or,  indeed,  ecclesiastical  authority  in  general,  had  been 
attacked  with  success  by  the  secular  power;  and  these  were 
designated,  by  a  perverse  misnomer,  proofs  of  the  liberty  of  the 
Gallican  Church.  They  were,  in  reality,  proofs  of  the  rise  and 
progress  of  Erastianism. 

Much  clamour  was  raised  against  this  volume  by  the  clergy, 
and  Richelieu  found  it  necessary  to  order  it  to  be  suppressed 
by  the  Council  of  State.*  Cardinal  de  la  Rochefoucauld,  sum- 
moning a  meeting  of  prelates  at  his  abbey  of  Ste.  Genevieve, 
denounced  the  work  as  schismatical  and  heretical ;  and  the 
other  bishops  were  exhorted,  in  a  circular  letter,  to  prohibit 
it  in  their  dioceses.f  But  these  measures  seem  to  have  had 
little  effect.  The  sale  of  Dupuy's  compilation  proceeded  with 
scarcely  an  affectation  of  secresy,  both  in  Paris  and  the 
provinces. 

During  the  year  1640  the  rumours  of  an  impending  rupture 
between  France  and  the  Holy  See  acquired  still  wider  currency. 
The  enemies  of  Richelieu  strove  to  bring  him  into  odium  by 
stimulating  the  popular  apprehensions  on  the  subject ;  and  with 


*  November  20,  1638.  The  reason 
alleged  was  that  it  was  published  with- 
out the  official  "privilege.'  Grotius 
complains  of  this  step  to  the  Chan- 
cellor Oxenstiern,  in  a  letter  dated 
Jan.  12  (22),  1639.  "Quantum  hsec 
evulgatio  nocere  sibi  posset,  satis  iutel- 
lexit  Pontificis  nuntius,  multumque 
moliendo,  adjutoribus  et  monachis, 
effecit  tandem,  ut  pro  rege  et  reguo 


f'actus  liber,  a  consilio  regio,   nomine      tificatives." 


regis  ipsius,  clivendi  vetaretur.  Ita, 
sub  regibus  aut  ignaris  aut  ignavis, 
tantum  saepe  fit  damni,  quantum  suc- 
cessores  segre  sarciant;  mirumque  est 
pro  regibus  scribi  Lutetiae  non  licere, 
cum  Romse  quotidie  contra  reges  et 
eorum  jura  libri  fiant." — Grot.,  Epist. 
1103.  Edit.  Amstelodam.  1687. 

f  Collection    des    proces-verhaux    du 
Clerge'de  France,  torn,  iii.,  "  Pieces  jus- 


A.D.  1640. 


"  OPTATUS  GALLUS.' 


351 


this  view  a  treatise  was  put  forth  under  an  assumed  name, 
entitled,  '  Optati  Galli  de  cavendo  schismate  liber  paraaneticus.' 
The  author  was  Charles  Hersent,  a  priest  of  the  diocese  of  Paris. 
His  pseudonym,  Optatus  Gallus,  was  an  apposite  allusion  to 
Optatus  Bishop  of  Milevis  in  the  fourth  century,  who  distin- 
guished himself  by  a  powerful  exposure  of  the  schism  of  the 
Donatists.  In  emulation  of  this  African  prelate,  Hersent  raised 
the  note  of  solemn  admonition  against  the  threatened  divorce 
of  the  French  Church  from  the  centre  of  Catholic  unity.  He 
descanted  on  the  manifold  causes  of  alarm  which  had  arisen  from 
recent  events;  the  scandalous  misrepresentation  of  the  Gallican 
liberties  ;  the  continued  circulation  of  Dupuy's  brochure,  in  de- 
fiance of  the  sentence  of  the  bishops  and  the  Order  of  Council 
for  its  suppression ;  the  resistance  to  the  customary  payment  s 
to  the  Pope  on  ecclesiastical  promotions — a  resistance  well 
known  to  be  sanctioned,  if  not  prompted,  by  the  Cardinal- 
minister;  and  a  recent  declaration  by  the  king  concerning  the 
validity  of  marriages,  which  was  at  variance  with  the  decrees 
of  Trent  and  with  the  constant  practice  of  the  Church.  Hersent 
protested  further  against  the  perilous  scheme  of  setting  up  a 
Patriarch  in  France,  which,  if  realised,  would  place  the  Gallican 
Church  in  the  self-same  predicament  with  the  schismatical 
establishment  in  England.  This  attack  was  sternly  repulsed  by 
the  authorities  of  Church  and  State.  The  Parliament  ordered 
the  libellous  production  of  Optatus  Gallus  to  be  burnt  by  the 
public  hangman ;  the  Archbishop  of  Paris  and  his  comprovin- 
cials  branded  it  with  unanimous  censure,  as  "  false,  scandalous, 
malicious,  and  injurious  to  the  peace  of  the  realm."  Richelieu 
commissioned  several  divines  to  refute  the  fallacious  reason- 
ings of  Hersent.  One  of  them,  a  Jesuit  named  Eabardeau, 
published  a  pamphlet  under  the  title  of  '  Optatus  Gallus  de 
cavendo  schismate  benigna  manu  sectus,'  in  which  he  main- 
tained that  the  appointment  of  a  Patriarch  by  a  national  Church 
is  by  no  means  a  schismatical  act ;  and  that  the  consent  of  the 
Pope  was  not  more  necessary  for  such  a  step  in  France  than  it 
had  been  in  ancient  times  for  the  creation  of  the  patriarchates 
of  Jerusalem  and  Constantinople.*  The  Koman  Inquisition 


*  D'Avrigny  observes  (Mtfn.  Chrono- 
Ing.,  torn.  ii.  p.  142)  that  there  could  be 
no  offence  to  the  See  of  Eome  in  tin- 


creation  of  the  Eastern  Patriarchates, 
inasmuch  as  it  did  not  deprive  the 
Tope  of  any  part  of  his  jurisdiction  as 


352 


THE  GALLTCAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  X. 


condemned  this  performance,  and  the  sentence  was  officially 
recognized  by  the  assembly  of  French  clergy  in  the  session  of 
1645.* 

The  same  occasion  gave  birth  to  another  literary  under- 
taking of  far  greater  importance,  namely  the  celebrated  work 
of  Pierre  de  Marca,  *  De  Concordia  Sacerdotii  et  Imperil.'  The 
reader  will  remember  that  De  Marca's  high  reputation  for 
learning,  both  in  civil  and  canon  law,  had  procured  for  him, 
some  years  previously,  the  appointment  of  first  President  of 
the  Parliament  of  Beam.  He  now  received,  through  .Richelieu, 
the  king's  commands  to  exercise  his  talents  in  exposing  the 
sophistries  of  Optatus  Gallus.  No  man  in  the  kingdom,  pro- 
bably, was  better  qualified  for  the  task.  De  Marca's  profound 
acquaintance  with  antiquity  had  taught  him  that  the  rightful 
"  liberties  "  of  the  Church  were  compatible  both  with  the  au- 
thority of  the  Apostolic  See  and  with  the  independence  of  the 
civil  power ;  ani  that  neither  the  Pope  nor  the  Crown  could 
have  just  cause  to  complain,  provided  the  original  laws  and 
institutions  of  Christendom  were  maintained  in  their  integrity. 
Such  are  the  principles  on  which  his  work  is  founded ; — a  work 
of  elaborate  and  exhaustive  research,  which  has  never  been 
surpassed  in  the  department  of  ecclesiastical  lore  to  which  it 
relates.  Notwithstanding  all  the  prudence  and  discretion  of  the 
author,  however,  it  gave  offence  at  Rome ;  and  when  De  Marca 
was  named,  in  1642,  to  the  bishopric  of  Conserans,  he  was 
denied  canonical  institution.  For  more  than  five  years  his  pro- 
motion was  obstructed,  and  it  was  not  till  he  had  published  a 
supplementary  treatise,  in  which  some  of  his  former  statements 
were  explained,  some  altered,  and  some  withdrawn,  that  the 
impediment  was  at  length  removed  by  Innocent  X. 

Thus  dubious  were  the  relations  of  the  Gallican  Church 
with  the  Roman  curia  under  the  despotic  rule  of  Richelieu. 
Urban  VIIL,  however,  though  an  ambitious  Pontiff,  possessed 
considerable  address  and  self-command.  He  was  peremptory 


Patriarch  of  the  West;  whereas  the 
establishment  of  a  Patriarch  in  France 
would  have  robbed  him  of  an  important 
province  which  had  been  immemorially 
subject  to  his  authority.  But  if  the 
Pope  be  (what  the  Ultramontane  hypo- 
thesis maintains  him  to  be)  universal, 


(ecumenical  bishop,  the  erection  of  inde- 
pendent Patriarchates  in  the  East, 
without  his  sanction,  must  surely  have 
been  an  invasion  of  his  rights. 

*  Me'nioires  du     Clerge   de    France, 
torn.  i.  p.  636. 


A.D.  1632.  THE  "DIABLES  DE  LOUDUN."  353 

in  the  assertion  of  his  rights,  but  he  never  allowed  his  differ- 
ences with  the  French  Government  to  go  beyond  the  reach  of 
explanation  and  satisfactory  adjustment. 

An  affair  of  another  nature  belongs  to  the  same  period, 
which  cannot  be  passed  over  without  notice,  though  it  is 
difficult  to  arrive  at  a  complete  elucidation  of  the  circum- 
stances. Various  theories  have  been  framed  respecting  them ; 
but,  whatever  interpretation  may  be  preferred,  an  equally 
singular  picture  meets  us  of  the  state  of  religious  feeling,  and 
of  public  opinion  in  general,  under  the  ministry  of  Kichelieu. 
Some  of  the  details,  if  their  date  were  not  known,  might  be 
mistaken  for  legends  of  the  darkest  and  most  barbarous  age. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  year  1632,  certain  strange  phenomena 
made  their  appearance  among  the  nuns  of  the  Ursuline  convent 
at  Loudun  in  Poitou.  Many  of  them  were  seized  with  a  sudden 
and  mysterious  infatuation.  They  uttered  unearthly  cries,  threw 
their  bodies  into  frightful  contortions,  and  practised  other  ex- 
travagances, which  led  to  the  conclusion  that  they  were  either 
bereft  of  reason  or  victims  of  a  demoniacal  possession.  The 
latter  persuasion  quickly  prevailed  ;  and  great  was  the  commo- 
tion when  it  became  known  that  the  patients,  in  their  frenzied 
ravings,  had  accused  one  of  the  parish  priests  of  the  same  town 
of  bewitching  them  by  magical  arts.  This  was  Urbain  Grandier, 
cure  of  St.  Pierre  and  canon  of  Ste.  Croix  at  Loudun.  He  is 
described  as  a  man  gifted  with  many  outward  graces  and  engaging 
qualities,  but  withal  vain  and  presuming,  and  of  irregular  morals. 
His  natural  and  acquired  advantages  on  the  one  hand,  and  his 
notorious  licentiousness  on  the  other,  had  made  him  an  object 
of  jealousy  and  ill-will,  particularly  among  his  clerical  brethren. 
He  had  excited  envy,  moreover,  by  his  talents  as  a  preacher,  and 
had  taken  a  prominent  part  in  defending  the  rights  of  the 
secular  clergy  against  the  encroachments  of  the  monks  and 
friars.  For  these  reasons  a  priest  named  Mignon,  confessor  to 
the  Ursuline  sisterhood,  was  his  sworn  enemy  ;  and  Mignon 
conspired  with  other  ecclesiastics  to  effect  his  ruin.  Whether 
the  whole  story  of  the  possession  was  an  imposture  fabricated 
expressly  for  this  purpose,  or  whether  advantage  was  taken  of 
the  existing  disorder  at  the  convent  to  fix  an  odious  imputation 
upon  Grandier  which  would  be  strongly  corroborated  by  his 
antecedents,  it  is  impossible  to  determine.  Mignon  affirmed 

VOL.  i.  2  A 


,°..">l  THE  GALLIC  AN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  X. 

that  the  foul  spirits,  being  duly  exorcised  by  himself  and  other 
priests,  bore  witness  to  the  guilt  of  the  accused ;  but  it  must  be 
observed,  as  a  suspicious  circumstance,  that  these  exorcists  de- 
clined to  perform  that  ceremony  in  the  presence  of  the  local 
magistrates.  The  ecclesiastical  authorities  were  divided  in  their 

O 

view  of  the  case.  The  Bishop  of  Poitiers,  in  whose  diocese  Loudun 
is  situated,  was  unfavourable  to  Grandier ;  *  the  Archbishop  of 
Bordeaux,  metropolitan  of  the  province,  was  disposed  to  befriend 
him;  he  sent  his  own  physician  to  visit  the  convent,  and  it 
appeared  from  his  report  that  no  trace  of  witchcraft  was  then 
visible,  and  that  the  demeanour  of  the  sisters  was  calm  and 
rational.  Upon  this  the  Archbishop  laid  down  certain  directions, 
well  calculated  to  elicit  the  truth,  which  were  to  be  strictly 
attended  to  if  the  symptoms  should  reappear.  But  the  preter- 
natural manifestations  now  ceased  for  some  time,  and  the  plot 
against  Grandier  seemed  likely  to  collapse. 

Fresh  resources,  however,  were  at  hand.  It  so  happened  that 
Laubardemont,  a  councillor  of  state,  well  known  to  be  among 
the  most  relentless  instruments  of  Eichelieu's  tyranny,  came  to 
Loudun  on  public  business  connected  with  his  office.  To  him 
the  confederates  applied ;  t  and  by  way  of  prejudicing  his  mind 
against  Grandier,  they  insinuated  that  he  was  the  author  of  a 
vulgar  lampoon  called  '  La  Cordonniere  de  Loudun,'  which  was 
full  of  gross  scurrilities  against  the  person,  family,  and  public 
conduct  of  the  Cardinal-minister.  This  was  one  of  the  crimes 
which  Richelieu  never  pardoned ;  and  most  writers  are  of  opinion 
that  the  thirst  of  vengeance  on  the  supposed  satirist  was  his 
chief  motive  in  sanctioning  the  detestable  cruelties  which 
followed.  Orders  were  sent  to  Laubardemont  to  institute  pro- 
ceedings against  Grandier,  and  that  in  a  form  which  showed 
that  his  condemnation  was  predetermined.  The  unhappy 
man  was  arrested,  and  imprisoned  for  four  months  at  Angers, 
until  the  preparations  for  his  trial  were  completed.  On  being 
taken  back  to  Loudun,  he  was  confronted  for  the  first  time  with 
the  nuns  who  were  said  to  have  suffered  from  his  sorceries. 
The  signs  of  possession  instantly  commenced  afresh;  the  fiends 


*  A  few  years  previously  the  bishop  obtained  an  acquittal, 

had  been  compelled  to  proceed  against  f  The  superior  of  the  Ursulincs  \vaa 

him  on  a  charge  of  immorality ;  but,  on  I    a  niece  of  Laubnrdomont. 
appeal  to  the   Metropolitan,   lie    had 


A.D.  1634.  URBAIN  GRANDIER.  355 

were  furious  against  the  helpless  prisoner ;  they  loaded  him  with 
execrations,  and  threatened  to  tear  him  in  pieces.  At  length 
he  was  brought  to  trial  before  a  special  commission  named  by 
Richelieu,  consisting  of  twelve  judges  chosen  from  a  distance, 
with  Laubardemont  as  president.  The  evidence  against  him  was 
that  of  the  demons  themselves  (Astaroth,  Asmodeus,  Sabulon, 
&o.),  procured  by  the  mock  exorcisms  of  those  who  were  known 
to  be  bent  on  his  destruction.  In  vain  he  urged  that  the  devil 
is  the  father  of  lies,  and  ought  not  to  be  credited  even  when  he 
speaks  the  truth.  In  vain  it  was  pointed  out  that  the  spirits 
contradicted  themselves,  that  they  were  proved  to  be  false  by 
the  application  of  the  general  tests  enjoined  by  the  Church,  and 
that  the  means  prescribed  by  the  metropolitan  for  guarding 
against  deception  in  this  particular  case  had  been  totally  ignored. 
It  was  a  mere  parody  of  justice.  Laubardemont  even  went  so 
far  as  to  announce  publicly  that  any  one  presuming  to  gainsay 
the  depositions  against  the  prisoner  would  be  punished  with  fine 
and  corporal  penalties. 

The  court  pronounced  judgment  on  the  17th  of  August,  1634, 
convicting  Grandier  of  the  crimes  of  magic  and  sorcery,  in 
maliciously  causing  the  possession  of  the  Ursulines  and  of  other 
persons  named  in  the  indictment.  He  was  tortured  with  un- 
speakable barbarity,  but  nothing  could  be  wrung  from  him 
beyond  cries  for  mercy  and  fervent  protestations  of  innocence. 
The  capital  sentence  was  executed  the  next  day,  and  Grandier 
was  burnt  to  death  on  a  scaffold  in  the  public  square  of  Loudun, 
imploring  pardon  of  God,  and  repeating  the  litanies  of  the 
Virgin,  with  his  last  breath.* 

The  marvellous  tale  of  the  possessions  of  Loudun,  though  the 
instinct  of  our  own  age  prompts  us  to  reject  it  without  hesita- 
tion, found  credence  at  the  time,  and  that  not  only  with  the 
superstitious  multitude,  but  with  minds  of  superior  enlighten- 
ment and  culture.  Eichelieu,  according  to  the  account  given 
in  his  '  Memoirs,'  f  was  fully  convinced  of  its  truth.  The  Jesuit 


*  See  the  original  documents  relating  3.   Jugement   rendu   par  les   comrnis- 

to  this  affair  in  the  Archives  Curieuses  saires  depute's  centre  Urbain  Grandier. 

de  I  Hist,  de  France,  torn.  v.  2  Serie.  4.  Eelation  ve'ritable  de  la  mort  d'Ur- 

These  consist  of — 1.  Veritable  relation  bain    Grandier.      5.    Lettre  du   Sieur 

des  justes  procedures,  &c.  (by  F.  Tran-  Grandier  an  JRoi. 

quille,  one  of  the  exorcists).     2.  Fao-  t  See  Mi:mrrire.g  de   Richelieu,    Liv. 

turn   pour   Maistre    Urbain    Grandier.  xxv.     (Fotitot,  2"  Serie.) 

'>    A    2 


•'>"><'>  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  X. 

Father  Surin,  a  man  of  unquestionable  piety,  though  inclined  to 
fanaticism,  acted  as  one  of  the  exorcists.  Walter  Montague, 
afterwards  Abbot  of  Pontoise,  declared  to  Pope  Urban  VIII. 
that  he  had  witnessed  on  this  occasion  proofs  of  diabolical 
agency  which  made  disbelief  impossible.* 

It  may  safely  be  pronounced,  however,  that  the  possession,  if 
real,  was  not  the  work  of  Urbain  Grandier.  He  was  no  magician, 
though  unhappily  guilty  of  many  other  delinquencies.  His  own 
undisciplined  passions,  rather  than  any  more  direct  commerce 
with  the  powers  of  darkness,  would  seem  to  have  brought  him, 
by  a  chain  of  retributive  consequences,  to  this  wretched  end. 

Of  the  part  acted  by  Richelieu  in  this  tragedy  there  is  no 
sufficient  explanation.  If  he  believed  the  case  to  be  one  of 
genuine  possession,  why  did  he  send  it  before  an  extraordinary 
commission  with  a  man  of  Laubardemont's  sinister  reputation 
at  the  head  of  it,  instead  of  leaving  it  in  the  hands  of  the  Church 
authorities,  to  whose  cognisance  it  manifestly  belonged  in  the 
first  instance  ?  On  the  other  hand,  if  he  was  actuated  merely 
by  resentment  against  Grandier  as  the  presumed  writer  of  a 
miserable  anonymous  libel,  why  did  he  not  prosecute  him  for 
that  offence  before  the  ordinary  tribunals,  as  had  been  his  custom 
in  other  like  instances  ?  It  has  been  suggested  that  the  Cardi- 
nal's object  was  to  give  another  terrible  lesson  to  the  Calvinists, 
who  had  ridiculed  the  possessions  as  a  delusion  and  the  exorcisms 
as  a  farce.  One  thing  is  clear  at  all  events,  that  he  was  resolved 
upon  the  condemnation  of  Grandier;  but  various  questions  of 
detail  as  to  the  motives  which  governed  him  must  remain  neces- 
sarily without  an  answer,  t 

The  unfortunate  Ursulines  were  not  immediately  delivered 
from  their  Satanic  visitations  upon  the  death  of  Grandier. 
Father  Surin  was  commissioned  by  his  Order  to  continue  the 
exorcisms,  and  some  of  the  spirits  showed  a  determination  to 
maintain  their  posts,  in  spite  of  all  his  exertions,  to  the  last 
extremity.  The  prioress,  Jeanne  des  Anges,  was  grievously  tor- 
mented for  more  than  two  years  afterwards ;  and  the  last  of  the 


*  H.  M.  Boudon,  Vie  du  P.  Seurin, 
Paris.  1689. 

t  The  sceptical  Gui  Patin  dismisses 
the  case  without  hesitation  as  a  mali- 
cious stratagem  of  Richelieu's  for  the   |   mieux  que  Ini."    Lc-ttre  clxxf.,  torn.  i. 
ilt-structioii  of  a  personal  enemy.     "  La      p.  302. 


de'monomanie  de  Loudtin  a  e'te'  une  des 
fourberies  du  Cardinal  (et  plfit  a  Dieu 
qu'il  n'eut  fait  que  celle-la !)  pour 
faire  bruler  un  panvre  pretre  qui  valait 


A.D.  1634,     DUKE  OF  ORLEANS'  MARRIAGE  IMPUGNED.  357 

infernal  legion  could  not  be  persuaded  to  decamp  till  the  15th 
of  October,  1637.* 

The  imperiousness  of  Kichelieu's  temper,  combined  with  the 
splendour  of  his  genius,  gradually  overawed  the  authorities  of 
the  realm,  ecclesiastical  and  civil,  into  a  servile  compliance  with 
his  behests.  One  of  the  most  marked  instances  of  this  was  the 
dissolution  of  the  marriage  of  Gaston  Duke  of  Orleans,  the  pre- 
sumptive heir  to  the  throne,  with  his  second  wife,  Marguerite 
of  Lorraine.  They  had  been  married  at  first  in  private,  but  the 
union  was  afterwards  publicly  acknowledged  at  Brussels  before 
the  Archbishop  of  Malines.  Louis,  however,  refused  to  recognise 
it,  inasmuch  as  it  had  been  contracted  not  only  without  his 
consent,  but  in  direct  opposition  to  his  commands ;  and  the  Car- 
dinal determined  that  it  should  be  formally  annulled.  He  is 
said  to  have  had  views  of  family  interest  in  this  matter,  and  to 
have  projected  an  alliance  between  the  Duke  and  his  niece 
Madame  de  Combalet;  but  the  insinuation  seems  to  be  un- 
founded. 

There  were  two  grounds  upon  which  the  validity  of  the 
marriage  was  impugned ;  the  first  was  the  civil  offence  desig- 
nated by  the  French  law  "  rapt,"  the  Duke  of  Lorraine  being 
charged  with  having  unlawfully  inveigled  Gaston  into  a  con- 
nexion which  was  contrary  to  the  will  of  his  sovereign,  and, 
therefore,  to  the  fundamental  laws  of  the  realm  ;  the  second 
was  a  spiritual  offence,  the  "  clandestinite  "  of  the  marriage, 
which,  as  it  affected  the  conditions  essential  to  one  of  the 
Sacraments,  belonged  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Church. 

The  French  ambassador  at  Koine  was  instructed  to  inform 
the  Pope  that  his  Majesty  designed  to  prosecute  the  civil  suit 
before  his  courts  of  Parliament  at  Paris,  according  to  the 
immemorial  practice  in  such  cases;  but  that  if  his  Holiness 
should  think  fit  to  name  a  commission  of  French  bishops  to 
arbitrate  on  the  religious  question,  he  would  stay  the  action  of 
the  secular  arm  until  their  decision  (which  would  be  virtually 
that  of  the  Holy  See)  should  be  pronounced.  Urban  declined 
to  take  this  course ;  intimating  that  if  he  took  cognisance  of  the 
affair  at  all,  it  must  be  in  person,  and  not  through  com- 
missioners. Cardinal  Barberini  hinted  his  doubts  as  to  the 


*  D'Avrigny,  Mm.  Chwnoloij.,  t"iu.  ii.  p.  15. 


358  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  X. 

historical  authenticity  of  this  "  fundamental  law  of  the  realm," 
which  was  so  confidently  appealed  to  ;  and  compared  it  to  the 
Salic  law,  the  existence  of  which  had  never  yet  been  demon- 
strated from  any  ancient  record.*     The  ambassador  reported 
to  his  Government  that  there  was  little  prospect  of  assistance 
from  Home ;  and  Richelieu  forthwith  carried  the  cause  before 
the  Parliament.     The  Duke  of  Lorraine  was  cited  to  the  bar 
of  that  tribunal   as  a  vassal  of  the   French  Crown,  together 
with  the  Princess  Marguerite  his  sister,  and  the  Cardinal  of 
Lorraine,  in  whose  diocese  of  Toul  the  marriage   had  been 
celebrated.     The  obedient  magistrates,  after  fulfilling  all  the 
requisite  formalities,  gave  sentence  on  the  5th  of  September, 
1634,  declaring  the  marriage  "  invalidly  contracted,"  and  con- 
demning the  Duke,  as  guilty  of  high  treason,  to  the  forfeiture  of 
all  his  fiefs.     The  civil  contract  was  thus  annulled;  but  the 
ecclesiastical  difficulty  still  remained.     A  reconciliation  was 
now  effected  between  Louis  and  the  turbulent  Gaston,  by  which 
they  agreed,  among  other  articles,  that  the  question  of  the 
marriage  "  should  be  submitted  to  the  ordinary  authority  to 
which  his  Majesty's   subjects  were   amenable   in   such  cases, 
according  to  the  laws  of  the  realm ; "  the  Duke  engaging,  if 
the  judgment  should  be  adverse  to  him,  not  to  remarry  without 
the  king's  consent,  while  the  latter  promised  that  no  constraint 
should  be  placed  upon  his  Highness's  inclinations  with  regard 
to  any  future  alliance.t     In  pursuance  of  this  treaty  another 
attempt  was  made  to  induce  the  Pope  to  arbitrate  in  the  affair ; 
but  Urban  was  firm.     He  admitted  that  the  civil  contract 
might  be  dissolved  by  civil  authority;  but  insisted  that  the 
religious  union,  resulting   from   a  Sacrament  of  the  Church 
canonically   administered,   must   remain,   nevertheless,   intact. 
Under  these  circumstances  Richelieu  applied  to  the  national 
clergy.     A  royal  message  was  sent  to  them  at  their  ordinary 
meeting  in  May,  1635,  desiring  their  opinion  on  the  question 
"  whether  the  marriages  of  princes  of  the  blood,  particularly  of 
.  those  who  stand  nearest  in  succession  to  the  Crown,  can  be 
lawful  if  made  in  opposition  to  the  will  of  the  reigning  sove- 
reign."    This  inquiry  was  referred  by  the  Assembly  to  a  com- 

*  Levassor,  torn.  viii.  chap,  xxxvi. 

t  Memoires  de   Richelieu.  Liv.  xxv.  (Potitot,  torn,  xxviii.).     Mem.  du  Comte 
de  Montresor  (Petitot,  2  Se'rie,  torn.  liv.). 


A.P.  1G35.     GALLICAN  CLERGY  ON  ROYAL  MARRIAGES.  359 

mittee  of  five  members — the  Bishops  of  Montpellier  (Fenouillet), 
Chartres,  Seez,  St.  Malo,  and  Nismes — all  well  known  for  their 
obsequious  devotion  to  the  Cardinal.  In  order  to  save  appear- 
ances, these  prelates  consulted  several  leading  doctors  of  the 
Sorbonne — Lescot,  Habert,  Duval,  Cornet,  Isambert,  and  others 
— and  also  the  heads  of  the  religious  congregations,  including 
the  Jesuits  and  the  Oratorians ;  *  and  the  result  of  their 
deliberations  was  to  affirm,  almost  without  a  dissentient  voice, 
the  invalidity  of  royal  marriages  under  the  circumstances 
specified.  Their  report  to  that  effect  was  presented  on  the 
6th  of  July.  It  stated  that  the  civil  contract  constitutes 
the  "  matter "  of  the  Sacrament  of  Matrimony ;  that  this  is 
subject  to  alteration,  and  cannot  be  legitimate  unless  it  be  in 
conformity  with  the  regulations  of  the  civil  authority.  In 
default  of  such  conformity  there  can  be  no  valid  Sacrament. 
The  power  of  constituting  "  empechemeus  dirimans  "  was  exer- 
cised by  heathen  emperors,  and  the  same  right  belongs,  conse- 
quently, to  Christian  princes — a  right  of  which  the  Pope  and 
the  bishops  cannot  deprive  them.  The  custom  of  France 
forbids  the  princes  of  the  blood  to  marry  without  permission 
from  the  king;  and  marriages  made  without  his  consent  are 
ipso  facto  illegitimate,  invalid,  and  null.  And  the  said  custom 
is  declared  to  be  "reasonable,  ancient,  confirmed  by  legal 
prescription,  and  authorized  by  the  Church."  t  The  report  was 
adopted,  and  a  decree  in  the  same  terms  was  drawn  up  and 
signed  officially  by  the  Assembly. 

There  was,  however,  one  exception  to  the  unanimity  of  the 
French  clergy  on  this  occasion,  which  is  of  sufficient  importance 
to  deserve  mention ;  it  was  the  Abbe  de  St.  Cyran.  That 
fearless  divine  is  said  to  have  declared  that  "  he  would  rather 
have  killed  ten  men  "  than  be  a  party  to  the  late  resolution  of 
his  brethren,  which,  in  his  opinion,  had  "ruined  one  of  the 
Sacraments  of  the  Church."  J  This  boldness  of  speech  gave 
sore  umbrage  to  Richelieu,  and  was  one  of  the  offences  after- 
wards visited  without  mercy  on  St.  Cyran. 


*  Condren,  Superior-General  of  the 
Oratory,  was  confessor  to  the  Duke  of 
Orleans; — a  circumstance  which  did 
not  deter  him  from  pronouncing  in 
opposition  to  the  marriage. 


f  Memoires  du  Clerge  de  France, 
torn.  v.  p.  693. 

J  D'Avrigny,  Mem.  Chron.,  torn.  ii. 
p.  51. 


oGJ  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  X. 

The  Queen  Mother,  Mary  de  Medici,  who  at  this  time  was 
living  in  exile  at  Antwerp,  no  sooner  heard  of  these  proceedings 
at  Paris  than  she  wrote  to  the  Pope,  beseeching  him  not  to 
permit  the  marriage  of  her  son  to  be  dissolved,  and  inveighing 
bitterly  against  the  malice  of  the  Cardinal  and  the  measures  of 
the  Gallican  clergy.  Urban  ordered  his  nuncios  to  remon- 
strate ;  and  Louis,  in  reply,  begged  his  Holiness  not  to  give 
heed  to  these  groundless  complaints,  which  proceeded,  he  said, 
solely  from  the  spite  of  his  enemies  the  Spaniards,  whose 
interest  it  was  to  trouble  the  repose  of  his  kingdom.  He  would 
shortly  despatch  to  Home  one  of  the  bishops  who  had  been 
concerned  in  framing  the  decree  of  the  Assembly,  to  explain 
the  reasons  of  State  which  had  made  it  necessary  to  procure  the 
recent  declaration  from  the  ecclesiastical  body.  The  envoy 
chosen  for  this  purpose  was  Pierre  Fenouillet,  Bishop  of  Mont- 
pellier,  one  of  the  most  eminent  and  zealous  of  the  French 
prelates.  His  instructions  are  detailed  at  length  by  Richelieu 
in  his  Memoirs.  He  was  ordered  to  avoid  leading  the  Pope  to 
suppose  that  the  king  felt  himself  in  need  of  his  sanction  for 
the  step  he  had  taken,  as  if  there  were  any  doubt  of  its  validity 
without  such  sanction;  but  to  represent  that  his  Majesty  was 
prompted  by  reverence  and  affection  for  the  Holy  Father  to 
lay  before  him  the  reasons  which  made  it  impossible  that  the 
pretended  marriage  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans  could  be  recognized 
or  allowed  to  exist ;  such  an  alliance  being  to  the  last  degree 
prejudicial  to  the  repose  of  the  kingdom,  and,  consequently,  to  the 
welfare  of  Christendom.  He  was  to  remind  the  Pope  of  the  mani- 
fold misfortunes  which  had  been  brought  upon  France  in  former 
days  through  the  ambition  of  the  princes  of  Lorraine  ;  and  to 
state  that  the  present  head  of  that  family  had  surpassed  all  others 
in  showing  disrespect  and  animosity  against  the  person  of  his 
Majesty,  from  whom  he  had  received  benefits  and  favours  without 
number.  He  was  to  express  the  king's  confident  hope  that  his 
Holiness  would  not  oppose  the  ancient  "custom  of  France" 
with  respect  to  the  marriages  of  princes  of  the  blood — a  custom 
which  had  been  approved  by  his  predecessors,  and  confirmed 
by  ecclesiastical  canons.  He  was  to  point  out  that  neither  the 
Parliament  nor  the  clergy  had  done  anything  that  savoured  of 
encroachment,  or  was  contrary  to  lawful  precedent ;  instancing 
the  case  of  the  Empress  Judith,  wife  of  Charles  the  Bald,  who 


A.I).  1636.  MISSION  OF  FKNOUILLET  TO  ROME.  361 

had  been  excommunicated  by  a  Galilean  Council,  which  sen- 
tence had  not  been  objected  to  by  the  then  Pope,  Nicolas  I. 
Finally,  he  was  to  assure  the  Pope  that  the  king  would  gladly 
have  submitted  the  whole  affair  to  the  personal  arbitration  of 
his  Holiness,  but  for  certain  political  complications,  especially 
the  intrigues  of  the  Spaniards,  who  were  implacable  in  their 
jealousy  and  hatred  of  France ;  and  that  such  reference  to  the 
Holy  See  was,  after  all,  scarcely  necessary,  since  the  relative 
powers  and  prerogatives  of  the  Roman  Pontiff  and  the  French 
Government  were  distinctly  defined  by  the  Concordat.* 

Fenouillet  was  graciously  received  at  Rome,  and  fulfilled  his 
errand  with  so  much  tact  that  Urban  expressed  himself  satisfied, 
in  a  political  sense,  with  the  course  pursued  by  the  French 
Crown.  But  he  was  not  to  be  driven  from  his  view  of  the 
indissoluble  nature  of  the  marriage  considered  in  its  sacra- 
mental aspect.  The  Duke  of  Orleans,  in  consequence,  con- 
tinued to  insist  on  the  validity  of  his  marriage,  though  he 
declared  himself  perfectly  willing  to  defer  to  the  judgment  of 
the  Pope,  or  to  that  of  a  French  Council  presided  over  by 
commissioners  named  by  his  Holiness.  It  was  not  long,  how- 
ever, before  the  Cardinal  found  himself  compelled,  by  various 
considerations  of  State  interest,  to  give  way  upon  this  question, 
which  had  been  debated  with  so  much  warmth  and  obstinacy. 
In  January,  1637,  an  arrangement  was  entered  into  with 
Gaston  by  which  he  was  permitted  to  retain  his  wife,  with  the 
king's  publicly-expressed  approbation,  on  condition  that  he 
would  renounce  for  ever  all  sympathy  with  the  views  and 
policy  of  the  Duke  of  Lorraine.  The  prince  accepted  the 
stipulation,  was  reconciled  to  his  brother,  and  recovered  his 
honours  and  domains.  Such  a  conclusion  of  the  affair  was  by 
no  means  creditable  to  the  sincerity  of  Richelieu ;  while  it 
left  the  Assembly  of  the  clergy  in  a  position  of  awkwardness 
little  to  be  envied. 

The  views  of  the  great  Cardinal  with  regard  to  the  exclusive 
privileges  and  immunities  of  the  clerical  order  differed  widely 
from  those  which  prevailed  in  mediaeval  times.  His  sym- 
pathies were  with  Philip  the  Fair  rather  than  with  Boniface 
VIII.  He  refused  to  admit  the  argument  that,  since  the  Church 


ile  Hi<:heUeu,  Liv.  xxvi. 


362  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  X. 

is  essentially  independent  of  the  State,  therefore  the  clergy  are 
exempt  from  the  burden  of  ordinary  taxation  for  the  lawful 
requirements  of  the  Government.  Vast  sums  were  demanded 
and  obtained  for  various  public  purposes  from  the  ecclesiastical 
assemblies  of  1625,  1628,  and  1635,  though  not  without  mur- 
muring and  remonstrance ;  and  a  few  years  later  (Oct.  6, 1640), 
at  a  moment  when  the  misunderstanding  between  Richelieu  and 
the  Court  of  Home  was  at  its  height,  a  royal  edict  suddenly 
exacted  from  the  beneficed  clergy  a  sixth  of  their  entire 
revenue  for  the  two  years  next  ensuing.  This  proceeding  was 
justified  on  the  part  of  the  Crown  by  reasons  which  were  pal- 
pably unfair,  though  wearing  a  certain  air  of  plausibility. 
Richelieu  had  collected,  with  the  help  of  the  Bishop  of  Chartres, 
one  of  his  most  trusted  confidants,  a  mass  of  documents  from 
ancient  archives,  which  went  to  show  that  Church  property, 
being  held  in  mortmain,  belonged,  in  fact,  to  the  king  as  lord 
paramount ;  that  it  might  be  resumed  at  his  pleasure,  and  re- 
united to  the  domaine  royal ;  and  that  no  religious  corporation 
could  lawfully  acquire  any  such  possessions  except  by  letters 
patent,  which  were  granted  on  the  payment  of  an  ad  valorem 
duty,  called  the  "  droit  d'amortissement."  It  was  asserted  that 
the  clergy  had  systematically  neglected  to  fulfil  this  latter  con- 
dition ;  and  they  were  now  summoned  to  discharge  at  once  all 
the  arrears  which  had  thus  accumulated  since  the  year  1520, 
when  a  similar  claim  had  been  enforced  by  Francis  I.  The 
debt  was  assessed  at  one-sixth  of  the  whole  ecclesiastical  income 
for  two  years ;  and,  accordingly,  the  Government  took  measures, 
without  further  ceremony,  for  levying  this  outrageous  impost. 
No  sooner  did  the  royal  officers  begin  to  lay  violent  hands  upon 
the  Church's  patrimony,  than  an  agitation  arose  which  it  is 
more  easy  to  conceive  than  to  describe.  The  voice  of  remon- 
strance resounded  on  all  sides ;  torrents  of  denunciation  were 
poured  forth  against  the  "tyrant,"  the  "apostate,"  who  had 
sacrilegiously  trampled  on  the  privileges  of  the  Church,  and 
imposed  on  her  a  yoke  of  servitude  hitherto  without  example. 
Special  prayers  were  ordered  in  the  churches ;  strongly  worded 
petitions  were  forwarded  to  the  Throne  ;  appeals  were  made  to 
the  Pope  for  his  intervention.  The  grievance  resented  by  the 
clergy  was  not  so  much  the  amount  of  the  sum  demanded,  as 
the  attempt  to  extort  it  from  them  without  their  own  consent 


A.D.  1640.  UNJUST  TAXATION  OF  THE  CLERGY.  363 

in  their  representative  Assembly.  They  declared  themselves 
ready  to  contribute  their  just  share  to  the  national  exchequer  ; 
but  this  must  be  done  by  the  act  of  their  own  body,  and  not  by 
the  compulsory  fiat  of  the  State.  They  contended  that,  in 
principle,  all  applications  of  Church  funds  to  secular  purposes 
were  spontaneous,  and  emanated  from  the  Church  herself;  and 
nothing  should  induce  them  to  yield,  unless  the  form  of  syno- 
dical  deliberation  and  decision  were  at  least  outwardly  respected 
in  the  present  instance.  The  minister,  who  was  now  anxiously 
engaged  in  his  great  struggle  with  the  house  of  Austria,  felt 
that  it  was  time  to  offer  some  concession ;  he  signified,  there- 
fore, that  the  king  would  allow  the  matter  to  be  discussed  in  a 
General  Assembly  of  the  clergy,  which  was  ordered  to  meet  for 
that  purpose  in  the  spring  of  1641.  The  sittings  commenced 
on  the  15th  of  February  at  Paris,  but  they  were  afterwards 
transferred  to  Mantes,  where  Kichelieu  judged  that  his  projects 
were  more  likely  to  be  received  with  favour,  since  it  belonged 
to  the  diocese  of  Chartres,  presided  over  by  his  friend  Leouor 
d'Etampes. 

Stormy  scenes  characterized  the  sessions.  The  majority,  led 
by  Charles  de  Montchal,  Archbishop  of  Toulouse,  was  violently 
opposed  to  the  Government ;  the  minority,  devoted  to  Richelieu, 
were  not  less  resolute,  and  expressed  their  sentiments  in  extra- 
vagant language.  The  Bishop  of  Autun  affirmed,  to  the  horror 
of  his  brethren,  that  all  ecclesiastical  property  belonged  to  the 
Crown,  and  that  his  Majesty,  after  making  a  moderate  provision 
for  the  support  of  the  clergy,  was  fully  entitled,  if  he  thought 
proper,  to  appropriate  the  surplus.  The  total  subsidy  required 
from  the  Assembly  (including  the  arrears  of  "  amortissement," 
and  a  special  grant  in  addition  towards  the  expenses  of  the  war) 
was  six  millions  of  livres.  This  was  a  vast  reduction  from  the 
original  claim  of  a  sixth  of  two  years'  income ;  yet  the  clergy 
refused  to  vote  it,  and  it  became  necessary  to  resort  to  extreme 
measures  to  enforce  their  submission.  The  two  presidents,  the 
Archbishops  of  Sens  and  Toulouse,  together  with  four  bishops, 
were  expelled  from  their  seats  by  order  of  the  king,  and  com- 
manded to  retire  to  their  dioceses  without  passing  through 
Paris.  The  chamber,  thus  purged  of  its  refractory  members, 
consented,  on  the  27th  of  May,  to  pay  into  the  treasury  five 
millions ;  and  with  this  the  Government  declared  itself  satisfied. 


364  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  X. 

The  Pope  embraced  the  opportunity  of  intimating  his  desire 
for  the  accommodation  of  his  differences  with  France.  The 
diplomatic  intercourse  between  the  two  Courts,  which  had  been 
suspended  since  the  affair  of  Marshal  d'Estrees,  was  replaced 
on  the  accustomed  footing ;  and  a  cardinal's  hat,  a  boon  long 
and  importunately  demanded  on  behalf  of  Mazarin,  was 
despatched  as  a  pledge  of  reconciliation.* 

The  causes  which  had  rendered  the  Abbe  de  St.  Cyran  an 
object  of  suspicion  to  Richelieu  were  manifold  and  of  long  stand- 
ing. The  Cardinal,  while  Bishop  of  Lupon,  had  made  acquaint- 
ance with  him  as  an  ecclesiastic  of  the  neighbouring  diocese 
of  Poitiers,  and,  with  the  unerring  intuition  of  genius,  had  at 
once  recognized  his  extraordinary  powers  and  gifts.  On  becom- 
ing prime  minister,  he  showed  his  appreciation  of  St.  Cyran's 
merits  by  offering  him  various  appointments  in  the  Church. 
He  named  him,  in  1625,  principal  chaplain  to  Queen  Henrietta 
Maria  on  the  occasion  of  her  marriage.  The  abbe  having  de- 
clined the  post,  the  episcopal  see  of  Clermont  was  next  tendered 
for  his  acceptance,  and  declined  in  like  manner ;  and  afterwards 
other  preferments  with  the  same  result.  Richelieu  was  piqued 
by  this  persistent  opposition  to  his  advances.  The  spirit  of 
independence  was  precisely  that  which  he  could  least  under- 
stand or  tolerate ;  and  he  began  to  attribute  St.  Cyran's  conduct 
to  sinister  motives.  But  he  mistook  his  views  and  character. 
That  remarkable  man  was  ambitious,  but  his  ambition  was  not 
that  of  common  minds ;  he  cared  nothing  for  high  station,  or 
wealth,  or  political  influence ;  but  he  had  an  intense  thirst  for  that 
species  of  dominion  which  consists  in  the  authoritative  guidance 
of  souls.  He  was  formed  to  be  the  oracle  of  the  devout,  the  super- 
stitious, the  enthusiastic,  mind ;  to  enthral  tender  consciences ; 
to  organize  and  govern  a  religious  party.  Such  aspirations,  as 
they  were  gradually  manifested,  awakened  the  jealous  misgivings 
of  the  minister ;  who  felt  him  to  be  all  the  more  dangerous  in  pro- 
portion as  his  sphere  of  action  was  mysterious  and  intangible. 

St.  Cyran  appeared  early  as  an  author,  and  with  considerable 
success,  f  His  first  theological  effort  was  a  reply  to  the  Jesuit 


*  Collection  des   Procesrerbaux    des  siecle.      Caillet,    L' Administration    en 

Assemblies  du  Clerge",  torn.  ii.    Memoires  '    France  sous  le  Card,  de  Bichelieu,  torn. 

de  Montchal,  Aiche'veque    de  Toulouse.  :'    i.  p.  137  et  teqq. 

Ellics-Dupin,  Hid.  Bodes,   du  XV 1L  t  He  published,  in  16<X>.  a  curious 


A.D.1625.     THE  JESUITS  AND  THE  BISHOP  OF  CHALCEDON.     365 


Garasse ;  *  and  all  his  subsequent  works  were  dictated  more  or 
less  by  the  violent  antipathy  which  he  cherished  against  the 
Society.  A  volume  which  he  published  under  the  assumed 
name  of  "  Petrus  Aurelius  "  is  esteemed  his  masterpiece  ;  and 
of  this,  as  connected  with  a  controversy  which  excited  special 
interest  among  the  Gallican  clergy  of  the  day,  it  may  be 
desirable  to  give  the  reader  some  account. 

In  1625,  Urban  VIII.,  taking  advantage  of  the  opportunity 
offered  by  the  marriage  of  a  Catholic  princess  with  the  heir 
apparent  of  the  British  Crown,  had  nominated  Kichard  Smith 
his  Vicar- Apostolic  in  England  ;  who  was  thereupon  consecrated 
Bishop  of  Chalcedon  in  partibus,  and  invested  with  the  ordi- 
nary diocesan  jurisdiction. f  This  prelate,  soon  after  his  arrival 
in  England,  incurred  much  odium  by  enforcing,  perhaps  more 
strictly  than  the  circumstances  required,  the  rule  which  re- 
strained members  of  religious  Orders,  and  priests  having  no 
cure  of  souls,  from  hearing  confessions  without  licence  from  the 
ordinary.  The  Jesuits  resented  the  prohibition,  and  insisted 
that,  by  special  privilege  granted  by  the  Pope,  they  were  en- 
titled to  exercise  their  ministry  wherever  they  pleased,  inde- 
pendently of  the  diocesan  authority.  The  dispute  grew  serious, 
and  such  was  the  animosity  stirred  up  against  the  obnoxious 
Bishop  of  Chalcedon,  that  at  length  the  Government  of  Charles  I. 
proscribed  him  as  an  outlaw,  and  offered  a  reward  of  100?.  for 
his  apprehension.  Upon  this  he  made  his  escape  to  France, 
where  he  met  with  a  kind  reception  from  Cardinal  Eichelieu.J 

A  sharp  theological  skirmish  followed.  Dr.  Kellison,  Rector 
of  the  English  College  at  Douai,  came  forward  in  defence  of 
Bishop  Smith,  and  of  the  episcopate  in  general.  He  was 
answered  by  Edward  Knott,  Vice-Provincial  of  the  Jesuits  in 
England,  and  by  John  Floyd,  another  Jesuit,  who  put  forth 
*  An  Apology  for  the  conduct  of  the  Holy  See  in  the  govern- 


tre.xtise  entitled,  Question  royale,  et  sa 
decision,  written  in  reply  to  a  halt- 
joe  ulur  inquiry  of  Henry  IV.  as  to  the 
circumstances  in  which  a  subject  ought 
to  sacrifice  his  own  life  to  preserve  that 
of  his  sovereign.  St.  Cyran  has  conse- 
quently been  represented  by  Jesuits 
and  others  as  an  apologist  for  suicide. 

*  La  eomme  des  faute.8  et  faussete's 
contenues  en  la  Somme  'fheolftgiqiie  du 
Ptre  Garafse.  This  work  of  F.  Clara  Be 


was  condemned  by  the  Sorbonne  in 
September,  1627. 

t  This  latter  fact  was  denied  by  the 
Jesuits ;  but  it  is  clearly  established  by 
the  terms  of  the  Pope's  brief,  which  is 
given  at  length  in  the  Mvmoires  dn 
Clerge  de  France  (torn.  i.  p.  631),  and 
quoted  by  Kllies-Dupin  in  his  Eccles. 
Hist,  of  the  XVI Ith  Century. 

J  Collier's  'Ecclesiastical  History,' 
vol.  viii.  p.  40. 


366  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  X, 

ment  of  the  English  Catholics.'  The  two  last-mentioned  publi- 
cations were  forthwith  translated  into  French  and  Latin,  and 
submitted  to  the  Archbishop  of  Paris  and  the  Theological 
Faculty.  The  Archbishop  on  the  30th  of  January,  1631,  and 
the  Sorbonne  on  the  6th  of  February,  condemned  certain  pro- 
positions extracted  from  the  works  in  question  as  "  rash,  scan- 
dalous, and  heretical."  A  circular  letter  to  the  archbishops 
and  bishops  of  France  was  drawn  up  and  signed  by  thirty- 
two  prelates  then  assembled  at  Paris ;  in  which  these  errors 
were  denounced  as  tending  to  disparage  and  destroy  the  autho- 
rity which  Christ  gave  to  the  rulers  of  His  Church — sub- 

j 

versive  of  the  ecclesiastical  hierarchy — and  derogatory  to  one 
of  the  Sacraments  of  the  Church,  namely  Confirmation.  Some  of 
the  statements  were  even  declared  to  be  contrary  to  the  Word 
of  God,  the  authority  of  (Ecumenical  Councils,  and  the  supreme 
jurisdiction  of  the  successor  of  St.  Peter.*  The  following  may 
be  cited  as  illustrating  their  general  spirit.  "  It  is  utterly  false, 
and  of  dangerous  consequence,  to  say  that  there  must  of  neces- 
sity be  a  bishop  in  each  particular  Church."  "Bishops  are 
necessary  for  the  sole  purpose  of  ordaining  priests  and  deacons." 
"  Members  of  the  regular  Orders  belong  to  the  hierarchy  abso- 
lutely, and  not  in  this  or  that  sense."  "The  superiors  of 
religious  houses,  since  they  are  properly  the  ordinaries  and 
pastors  of  their  own  communities,  are  in  that  respect  more 
truly  members  of  the  hierarchy  than  a  bishop  who  is  only 
deputed  to  act  as  such  in  one  particular  place."  "Catholics 
who  have  received  the  chrism  in  baptism  are  perfect  Christians 
in  the  sense  of  the  Fathers,  even  though  they  have  not  been 
confirmed  by  the  bishop."  Such  doctrines  sound  strangely 
indeed  from  the  lips  of  Catholic  divines ;  nor  is  it  any  sufficient 
extenuation  of  them  to  plead  that  they  were  only  intended  to 
apply  to  "  times  of  persecution."  The  Jesuits,  notwithstanding 
the  censure  of  the  bishops  and  the  Parisian  Faculty,  kept  up  the 
controversy  with  unabated  vigour.  They  attacked  the  circular 
letter,  which  they  reviled  as  a  tissue  of  exaggerations,  containing 
no  one  proposition  that  was  strictly  true,  and  many  that  would 
be  totally  false  even  without  the  aid  of  hyperbolical  language. 
"  Did  the  French  bishops,"  they  demanded,  "  suppose  them- 


Memoire*  du  Clergp  de  France,  torn.  i.  p.  582. 


A.D.  1633.  ST.  CYKAN— 'PETRUS  AUEELIUS.'  367 

selves  to  be  more  vigilant  and  more  clear-sighted  than  the  Pope 
and  all  his  Cardinals  ?  The  publications  upon  which  they  had 
just  passed  sentence  were  perfectly  well  known  at  Rome  ;  yet  no 
one  there  had  thought  it  necessary  to  open  his  mouth  against 
them."  The  famous  Franpois  Hallier  undertook  the  defence  of 
the  Sorbonne  on  this  occasion  in  his  '  Vindicise  censurce  sacrse 
Facultatis,'  and  subsequently  in  his  work  'De  hierarchia.'  At 
length,  in  1633,  '  Petrus  Aurelius '  made  its  appearance  ; — a 
formidable  folio  volume,  written  in  a  laboured  and  heavy  style, 
but  evincing  great  intellectual  power,  a  complete  mastery  of  the 
subject  in  dispute,  and  an  extraordinary  acquaintance  with 
the  Fathers  and  the  ancient  discipline  of  the  Church.  It  was 
generally  attributed  at  the  time  to  the  Abbe  de  St.  Cyran,  and 
has  ever  since  been  reckoned  among  his  works.  St.  Cyran  never 
acknowledged  the  authorship :  on  the  contrary,  he  usually  spoke 
of  it  as  the  composition  of  another ;  but  there  is  no  doubt  that, 
if  not  actually  penned  by  his  own  hand,  it  was  written  under  his 
immediate  dictation.  His  nephew  Martin  de  Barcos,  who  after- 
wards succeeded  him.  in  the  abbey  of  St.  Cyran,  probably  acted 
as  amanuensis,  and  prepared  the  work  for  the  press. 

*  Petrus  Aurelius '  was  greeted  by  a  general  chorus  of  applause 
from  the  Galilean  bishops,  the  clergy  assembled  in  convocation, 
an'l  the  University  of  Paris.  The  Assembly  sent  a  deputation 
to  inquire  of  Filesac,  dean  of  the  Theological  Faculty,  whether 
he  could  tell  them  the  real  name  of  the  author ;  in  order  that 
they  might  express  to  him  their  high  sense  of  his  merits,  and 
offer  him  some  substantial  token  of  their  gratitude.  Filesac 
replied,  "  on  the  faith  of  a  priest,"  that  he  did  not  know  who 
Petrus  Aurelius  was ;  but  that  since  he  had  thought  fit  to 
forego,  by  remaining  concealed,  the  fame  and  honour  which 
were  clearly  his  due,  he  was  not  likely,  in  his  (Filesac's)  opinion, 
to  quit  his  incognito  for  the  sake  of  any  pecuniary  recompense. 
He  probably  desired  no  greater  reward  for  his  labours  than  to  be 
assured  of  the  favourable  verdict  of  so  celebrated  an  Assembly, 
and  so  many  distinguished  personages.*  The  Jesuits,  upon 
whom  Petrus  Aurelius  had  bestowed  no  small  amount  of 
sharp  vituperation,  complained  to  the  King  of  this  treatment, 
and  demanded  that  the  work  should  be  suppressed ;  but  in  vain. 


*  Froces-rerlmux  (h'H  Axsemlilf'es  <ln  dry^di-  Fnin<-<\  ton.  ii.  p.  835. 


368  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  X. 

They  continued  their  libellous  attacks  upon  the  prelates  and  the 
Assembly  of  clergy,  and  were  at  length  called  to  account  for 
their  conduct ;  upon  which  they  disavowed,  without  hesitation, 
the  writings  of  their  English  brethren,  as  well  as  the  more 
recent  publications  in  France;  declaring,  in  a  document 
addressed  to  the  bishops  on  the  23rd  of  March,  1633,  that 
the  works  in  question  were  not  composed  by  members  of  their 
Society,  and  lamenting  that  subjects  so  fertile  in  dissension 
should  ever  have  been  mooted.*  The  disingenuousness  of  this 
proceeding  requires  no  comment.  It  served  its  turn,  however ; 
for  the  bishops,  though  not  altogether  satisfied,  accepted  the 
disclaimer,  and  the  Jesuits  escaped  further  animadversion.  The 
Court  of  Home  interposed  at  the  same  moment  to  throw  its 
protecting  shield  round  these  unscrupulous  champions  of 
its  supremacy.  A  decree  of  the  Congregation  of  the  Index 
prohibited  the  continuance  of  the  controversy,  though  without 
pronouncing  any  decision  upon  the  merits  of  the  question. 
All  publications  relating  to  it  were  summarily  suppressed ;  and 
the  faithful  were  admonished  not  to  write  or  dispute  thence- 
forward upon  these  topics,  under  pain  of  excommunication 
ipso  facto.  The  Gallican  divines  exclaimed  loudly  against  this 
mandate,  arguing  that,  if  it  were  enforced  to  the  letter,  many 
unquestionable  Catholic  verities  could  no  longer  be  publicly 
insisted  on ; — for  instance,  that  the  privileges  granted  to 
Regulars  may  be  revoked  by  the  Pope ;  that  bishops  are 
superior  to  monks ;  that  it  is  necessary  for  every  Church  to 
have  episcopal  government ;  that  the  baptized  are  not  perfect 
Christians  unless  they  be  also  confirmed.  And  if  such  truths 
as  these  might  not  be  taught  authoritatively,  occasion  would 
be  given  to  heretics  to  triumph,  and  to  charge  the  Church  with 
tolerating  manifest  error. 

It  is  curious  to  observe,  in  glancing  at  the  subsequent  history 
of  the  writings  of  Petrus  Aurelius,  that,  although  welcomed 
with  such  enthusiasm  on  their  first  appearance,  they  did  not 
permanently  retain  a  high  place  in  the  estimation  of  the  clergy. 
In  1635,  as  we  have  said,  the  work  called  forth  warm  encomiums 
from  the  Assembly,  and  was  pronounced  signally  serviceable  to 
the  Church.  In  1641,  although  the  reputed  author  was  then  a 


*  Me'nwires  (hi  CJerfjef,  torn.  i.  p.  579. 


A.D.  1641.  'PETRUS  AURELIUS.'  369 

prisoner  at  Vincennes,  a  new  edition  was  printed  by  order  and 
at  the  expense  of  the  clergy ;  copies  of  which  were  presented  to 
all  the  archbishops  and  bishops,  and  to  all  the  deputies  of  the 
Assembly.      This   was   resented   by  the   Government ;    Vitre, 
printer  to  the  Assembly,  was  apprehended,  and  all  the  remain- 
ing copies  were  seized  and  confiscated.     When  the  time  came 
for  the  next  meeting  of  the  clergy,  Louis  XIII.  and  his  great 
minister  were  in  the  grave ;  and  a  new  order  of  things  had 
succeeded,  under  Anne  of  Austria  as  Eegent,  and  Mazarin  as 
director  of  her  councils.     The  clergy  now  remonstrated  with 
the  Government  for  the  indignity  done  to  their  order  by  the 
violent  suppression  of  a  work  which  they  had  stamped  with 
special  approval ;  and  demanded  that  the  copies  abstracted  by 
the   police  should  be  restored.     This  could  not  be  complied 
with,  since  it  appeared  that  the  books  had  been  thrown  into  a 
damp  garret,  where  they  had  mouldered  and  perished ;  but  the 
Chancellor  Seguier  offered  to   sanction  the  issue  of  a   third 
edition  of  '  Petrus  Aurelius.'     This  was  accordingly  published  in 
16^6,  and  was  prefaced  by  a  magnificent  eloge  of  the  author, 
in  the  graceful  Latinity  of  Godeau,  Bishop  of  Vence.     "  The 
Gallican  Church  exulted  in  this  memorable  vindication  of  the 
authority  of  the  Fathers,  and  congratulated  the  writer  on  having 
so  triumphantly  exposed  and  confuted  the  errors,  falsehoods,  and 
calumnies  of  his  adversaries;    thus  answering  fools,  as  Holy 
Scripture  enjoins,  according  to  their  folly.     The  clergy  knew 
not  which  of  his  varied  gifts  was  most  to  be  admired ; — his  vast 
ecclesiastical  learning,   his  majesty   of  style,  his   sagacity  in 
detecting  the  artifices  of  opponents,  his  weight  of  argument  in 
attacking  error,  his  candour  in  the  assertion  of  truth,  his  felicity 
in  expounding  the  abstruse  mysteries  of  faith,  his  ardent  love 
toward  the  spouse  of  Christ,  his  sincere  and  unaffected  humility." 
If,  however,  we  look  ten  years  forward,  we  shall  find  that 
these  sentiments  of  his  brethren  towards  Petrus  Aurelius  had 
during  that  interval  undergone  a  serious  alteration.     In  1656, 
France  was  convulsed  from  one  end  to  the  other  by  the  agita- 
tion of  the  Jansenist  controversy  ;  and  Eome  had  condemned, 
by  two  successive  bulls,  that  theological  system  of  which  St. 
Cyran  was  the  foremost  upholder.     The  clerical  Assembly  of 
that  year  disclaimed  and  revoked  the  acclamations  which  had 
been  lavished  upon  Petrus  Aurelius  on  former  occasions ;  sup- 
VOL,  i.  2  B 


370  THE  GALLTGAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  X. 

pressed  the  "  elogium  "  of  the  accomplished  Bishop  of  Vence ; 
and  even  required  the  editors  of  the  '  Gallia  Christiana  '  to 
expunge  a  laudatory  notice  of  St.  Cyran  which  they  had  inserted 
in  that  great  national  work.  The  cause  of  this  self-contradic- 
tion must  be  sought  chiefly  in  the  political  and  religious  com- 
plications of  the  time.  In  1656,  the  name  of  St.  Cyran  had 
become  notorious  as  that  of  one  whose  unhappy  speculations 
had  stirred  up  internecine  strife  in  the  very  bosom  of  the 
Church, — a  strife  of  which  none  could  foresee  the  end,  and  which 
threatened  the  Gallican  Communion  with  all  the  miseries  of 
open  schism.  Under  these  circumstances  the  clergy  did  not 
hesitate  to  abandon  Petrus  Aurelius,  at  the  expense  of  their 
own  consistency,  in  order  to  avoid  all  complicity  with  one  who, 
however  learned,  however  meritorious  in  days  gone  by,  was 
now  to  be  looked  upon  in  the  light  of  a  dangerous  innovator 
and  propagator  of  heresy.  Moreover,  it  had  probably  been 
discovered,  on  closer  inspection,  that  St.  Cyran's  views  as  to 
the  hierarchy  were  of  a  somewhat  democratic  cast ;  that  while 
he  exalted  the  bishops  in  their  relationship  to  the  Pope,  he  at 
the  same  time  exaggerated  the  powers  and  prerogatives  of  the 
priesthood  in  reference  to  their  diocesans;  fostering  thereby 
an  insubordinate  spirit  and  contempt  of  discipline. 

It  will  be  observed  that  in  his  great  work  on  the  Episcopate 
St.  Cyran  espoused  the  Grallican  side,  which  accorded  in  the 
main  with  the  sentiments  of  Richelieu.  Nevertheless,  the 
imputations  under  which  he  laboured  upon  other  matters  were 
so  serious  as  to  create  an  insurmountable  prejudice  against 
him  in  the  mind  of  the  minister.  Besides  declaring  himself 
directly  in  opposition  to  Richelieu  on  the  question  of  the  mar- 
riage of  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  he  had  publicly  contradicted  him 
on  a  point  of  theology  relating  to  the  discipline  of  the  con- 
fessional, upon  which  he  was  especially  sensitive.  The  Cardinal, 
in  a  Catechism  which  he  drew  up  for  the  use  of  his  diocese  of 
Lucon,  had  stated  (according  to  the  ordinary  teaching  of  Roman 
divines)  that  "  attrition,"  *  an  inferior  degree  of  mental  sorrow, 


*  Sir  James  Stephen,  with  amusing  towards   the   Deity."    See  Essays  in 

indifference  to  the  niceties  of  Catholic  Ecclesiastical  Biography,  No.  vi.,  "  The 

terminology,  represents   Eichelieu    as  Port   Koyalists."    Contrition,  in  theo- 

insisting  on   the  sufficiency  of  "con-  logical  parlance,   includes  the  love  of 

trition,  uncombined  in  the  heart  of  the  ;   God;   it  is  attrition   that  is  "uncom- 

penitent   with   any  emotions   of   love  bined'  with  it.    The  language  of  the 


A.D.  1638.  CONTRITION  AND  ATTRITION.  371 

arising  chiefly  from  the  fear  of  punishment,  is  sufficient  for 
acceptable  penitence  and  for  sacramental  absolution.  St.  Cyran 
combated  this,  and  asserted  the  necessity  of  "  contrition," — true 
and  deep  repentance,  accompanied  by  the  love  of  God — in  order 
to  the  forgiveness  of  sin.  And  since  it  is  universally  acknow- 
ledged that  by  such  contrition  the  sinner  becomes  justified  in 
God's  sight,  the  inference  was  drawn,  though  unfairly,  that  he 
did  not  believe  in  the  efficiency  and  necessity  of  the  Sacrament 
of  Penance.  Thus  St.  Cyran  gained  the  invidious  character  of 
a  man  bent  on  overturning  the  established  doctrine  of  the 
Church ;  while  his  position  as  spiritual  director  at  Port  Eoyal 
gave  him  opportunities  of  continually  widening  and  deepening 
the  sphere  of  his  influence.  But  the  proximate  cause  which 
determined  Richelieu  to  proceed  actively  against  him  seems  to 
have  been  political  rather  than  religious.  A  treatise  had  ap- 
peared in  1633  entitled  *  Mars  Gallicus,  sive  de  justitia  armorum 
et  foederum  regis  Galliae.'  It  was  by  Jansenius,  the  bosom 
friend  of  St.  Cyran ;  and  abounded  with  incisive  criticism  on 
the  administration  of  Richelieu,  denouncing  with  special  bitter- 
ness the  unnatural  confederacy  of  Catholic  France  with  the 
heretical  states  of  Germany.  The  work  found  favour  in  the  eyes 
of  Philip  IV.  of  Spain,  who,  in  testimony  of  the  author's 
services,  promoted  him  soon  afterwards  to  the  bishopric  of 
Ypres.  In  1638  a  French  translation  of  the  'Mars  Gallicus' 
was  published  by  Hersent,  the  same  who  has  been  already 
noticed  as  author  of  the  '  Optatus  Gallus.'  The  confidential 
relations  subsisting  between  St.  Cyran  and  the  Flemish  prelate 
being  well  known,  his  enemies  seized  the  opportunity  thus 
offered  of  ruining  him  with  the  Cardinal  by  identifying  him 
with  an  offensive  production  in  which  he  had  no  real  share 
whatever.  They  were  fully  successful.  On  the  14th  of  May, 
1638,  St.  Cyran  was  arrested  at  his  lodging  in  Paris,  and  im- 
prisoned in  the  donjon  of  Vincennes.  His  friends  besieged  the 
Palais-Cardinal  with  intercessions  in  his  favour  ;  the  Secretary 
of  State  Chavigny,  the  Bishops  of  Beauvais  and  Pamiers,  the 
Duchess  of  Aiguillon  (Richelieu's  niece),  and  even  the  saintly 
Vincent  de  Paul,  earnestly  pleaded  for  his  liberation  ;  but  the 


Council   of   Trent  on  the   subject  of  I   extent  ambiguous,  and  was  doubtless  de- 
attrition  (Sess.  XIV.  cap.  4)  is  to  some  |   signed  to  leave  the  question  undecided. 


372  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  X. 

Minister  was  inexorable.  "  I  tell  you,"  said  he,  "  this  man  is 
more  dangerous  than  six  armies.  If  Luther  and  Calvin  had 
been  placed  in  durance  in  good  time,  so  as  to  stop  their  public 
teaching,  all  Germany  and  all  France  would  have  been  Catholic 
at  this  moment."  Father  Seguenot,  an  Oratorian,  was  sent  at 
the  same  time  to  the  Bastille.  He  had  translated  St.  Augustine's 
treatise  '  De  Virginitate,'  with  notes ;  in  which  he  depreciated 
the  sanctity  of  the  monastic  life,  attacked  the  system  of  reli- 
gious vows,  and  broached  extreme  views  on  the  vexed  question 
of  "  attrition  and  contrition."  His  language  on  these  points  is 
said  to  have  been  transcribed  verbatim  from  the  writings  of  St. 
Cyran.* 

Every  exertion  was  now  made  to  obtain  evidence  to  convict 
St.  Cyran  of  heresy,  and  thus  to  destroy  for  ever  his  character 
as  a  religious  teacher.  Laubardemont,  the  Councillor  of  State 
before  mentioned  as  deep  in  the  confidence  of  Richelieu,  was 
commissioned  to  examine  witnesses  for  this  purpose ;  he  com- 
menced his  task  at  once  at  Port  Royal,  and  received  depositions 
from  various  persons  of  both  sexes,  all  apparently  of  average  credit, 
while  some  of  them  were  on  terras  of  friendship  with  the  prisoner, 

Tardif,  an  advocate  of  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  Mad  lie. 
d'Aquaviva,  daughter  of  the  Due  d'Atry,  the  Abbe  de  Prieres, 
.the  Abbe  de  Portmorant,  Caulet,  afterwards  the  celebrated 
Bishop  of  Pamiers,  and  Vigier,  Superior  of  the  Freres  de  la 
Doctrine  Chretienne,  were  among  those  interrogated  as  to  the 
orthodoxy  of  St.  Cyran  ;  and  to  these  we  must  add  the  Bishop 
of  Langres,  the  Archbishop  of  Sens,  and  Vincent  de  Paul,  who 
sent  their  testimonies  privately  to  Richelieu.  No  precise 
account  can  be  given  of  the  results  of  the  investigation,  inas- 
much as  the  records  of  the  proceedings  are  obviously  coloured 
by  the  strong  party  spirit  of  the  day.  So  far  as  can  be  ascer- 
tained, nothing  was  proved  against  St.  Cyran  to  substantiate 
the  charge  of  heresy.  His  weak  points  were  brought  to  light  in 
the  course  of  the  enquiry ;  these  seem  to  have  been  intempe- 
rateness  of  language,  self-sufficiency,  a  sovereign  contempt  for 
the  current  theology  of  his  own  time,  and  the  habit  (singular  in 
a  man  so  deeply  learned)  of  relying  too  exclusively  on  St. 
Augustine,  disregarding  in  comparison  the  general  stream  of 


D'Avrigny,  M&m.  Chronolog.,  lorn.  ii.  p.  86. 


A.D.  1638-43. 


ST.  CYRAN  AT  VINCENNES. 


373 


Church  tradition.  Vincent  de  Paul  was  summoned  before  M. 
de  Lescot,  under  a  commission  from  the  Archbishop  of  Paris, 
and  closely  questioned  as  to  the  contents  of  a  letter  written  to 
him  by  St.  Cyrari  in  1637.  He  gave  his  evidence  reluctantly, 
and  with  a  visible  leaning  towards  the  prisoner  ;  so  that  nothing 
was  elicited  upon  which  any  serious  accusation  could  be  founded.* 
It  appeared  that  St.  Cyran  had  let  fall  some  indiscreet  expres- 
sions in  disparagement  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  and  other  un- 
complimentary reflexions  on  the  existing  state  of  things  in  the 
Church.  The  prisoner  himself  subsequently  underwent  an  ex- 
amination by  Lescot  in  his  cell ;  on  which  occasion,  if  D'Avrigny 
is  to  be  credited,  he  showed  himself  no  mean  proficient  in  the 
arts  of  prevarication.  He  excused  his  conduct  in  one  case  by 
remarking  that  men  often  maintain  in  theory  principles  which 
they  contradict  in  practice ;  and  that,  although  he  might  desire, 
"  by  a  first  intention,"  the  restoration  of  the  ancient  discipline, 
yet  "  by  a  second  intention  "  he  might  judge  it  right  to  depart 
from  this  standard,  and  accommodate  himself  to  the  prevailing 
dispositions  of  mankind.  In  another  difficulty  he  pleaded  that 
he  had  employed  the  figure  Catachresis,  which  signifies  an  abuse 
of  language ;  and  added  that  if  he  had  sometimes  erred  in 
this  respect,  much  ought  to  be  pardoned  in  one  of  his  impetuous 
nature,  who  could  not  always  keep  his  tongue  under  control-t 

Even  if  St.  Cyran  had  been  guilty  of  all  that  was  imputed  to 
him,  there  was  nothing  to  justify  his  detention  in  prison ;  nor 
was  any  attempt  made  to  found  a  legal  prosecution  on  the  result 
of  these  enquiries.  He  bore  his  captivity  with  exemplary  forti- 
tude. It  lasted  nearly  five  years,  and  was  terminated  only  by 
the  death  of  Eichelieu.  More  than  once  it  was  intimated  to 
the  prisoner  that  he  might  obtain  his  liberty  on  condition  of 
giving  satisfaction  on  certain  points,  especially  on  the  much- 
contested  doctrine  of  attrition  and  contrition.  But  St.  Cyran 
could  not  reconcile  such  compliance  with  his  conscience,  and 
preferred  the  loss  of  liberty  to  the  sacrifice  of  principle.  During 


*  B.  Kacine,  Hist.  Ecdes.,  torn.  xiii. 
Pt.  i.  Art.  31. 

t  D'Avriguy,  Mem.  Chronolog.,  torn, 
ii.  p.  107.  It  must  be  observed  that  no 
official  account  was  ever  published  of 
the  examination  of  St.  Cyran  by  M.  de 
Lescot.  D'Avrigny's  version  of  it  is 
probably  borrowed  from  that  given  by 


the  Jesuit  Pinthereau  (under  the  dis- 
guised name  of  De  Preville)  in  his 
Progres  du  Jansenisme  descouoert. 
Thus  these  allegations,  being  those  of 
declared  enemies,  lie  open  to  some  sus- 
picion. See  St.  Beuve,  Port  Royal 
torn.  i.  p.  510,  et  seqq.  Guette'e,  Hist. 
de  I'Eijlise  di  France,  torn.  x.  p.  210. 


374  THE  GALLIC  AN  CHURCH.  •  CHAP.  X. 

his  confinement  he  wrote  his  '  Lettres  Chretiennes  et  Spirituelles,' 
which  have  been  many  times  reprinted ;  and  he  continued  to 
wield,  perhaps  all  the  more  powerfully  because  he  was  suffering 
persecution,  that  wonderful  empire  which  he  possessed  over 
religiously-disposed  minds  in  all  classes  of  society.  It  was 
at  Vincennes  that  he  received  the  visits  of  Antoiue  Arnauld,  at 
that  time  a  divinity  student  preparing  for  his  degrees  at  the 
Sorbonne ;  upon  whom  his  counsels  wrought  such  a  profound 
impression,  that  he  renounced  his  prospects  of  professional 
renown,  resigned  his  preferments,  and  not  long  afterwards  joined 
the  band  of  ascetic  solitaries  who  had  installed  themselves  in 
the  cloisters  of  Port  Royal  des  Champs.  Another  convert  made 
by  St.  Cyran  during  his  imprisonment  was  Henri  Arnauld  de 
Luzancj,  an  officer  in  the  army,  son  of  M.  Arnauld  d'Andilly, 
and  nephew  of  the  great  Antoine.  He  held  an  appointment  in 
the  household  of  Richelieu,  and  might  reasonably  have  aspired 
to  the  highest  honours ;  but  such  considerations  were  not  proof 
against  the  rhetoric  of  the  captive  confessor.  De  Luzanci  sub- 
mitted to  St.  Cyran's  guidance  as  to  that  of  a  voice  from  Heaven ; 
relinquished  without  a  sigh  his  position  in  the  gay  world  of 
Paris,  and  would  not  be  satisfied  till  he  had  obtained  admittance 
among  the  pious  hermits  of  the  valley  of  Chevreuse. 

The  formation  of  a  society  of  men  capable  by  their  talents, 
their  learning,  their  absolute  self-devotion,  of  counterbalancing 
the  power  of  the  Jesuits,  had  been  for  years  uppermost  in  the 
mind  of  St.  Cyran.  It  was  from  the  Arnauld  family,  over  whom 
his  ascendency  was  boundless,  that  he  chose  his  first  instruments 
in  the  execution  of  this  scheme.  Antoine  Lemaitre  was  a 
nephew  of  the  Abbess  Angelique  and  of  Antoine  Arnauld. 
Lemaitre,  at  the  age  of  twenty-eight,  had  acquired  an  extraor- 
dinary reputation  as  a  barrister,  and  was  rapidly  advancing 
towards  the  highest  dignities  of  the  profession.  St.  Cyran  set 
his  heart  upon  effecting  the  conversion  of  this  gifted  advocate. 
He  succeeded  in  dissuading  him  from  an  advantageous  marriage 
which  would  have  attached  him  by  permanent  ties  to  the  world. 
This  triumph  gained,  no  pains  were  spared  to  convince  him  of 
the  glory  and  blessedness  of  a  life  of  devout  and  ascetic  seclusion. 
By  degrees  Lemaitre  yielded  to  these  impressions ;  and  at  length 
the  solemn  ministrations  of  St.  Cyran  at  the  deathbed  of  Madame 
Arnauld  d'Andilly,  his  aunt,  touched  a  chord  which  vibrated 
with  irresistible  sympathy  through  his  inmost  soul.  A  few 


A.D.  1638-43.  ST.  CYRAN'S  CONVERTS.  375 

months  afterwards  he  resigned  his  appointments,  abandoned  his 
profession,  and  retired  to  Port  Royal,  where  he  became  the  first 
of  the  famous  "  Solitaires."  Such  an  example  was  not  likely, 
in  that  age  and  country,  to  remain  without  imitators.  Lemaitre 
was  joined  successively  by  his  younger  brother  Lemaitre  de 
Sericourt ;  by  Antoine  Singlin,  a  priest  who  had  been  trained 
under  the  eye  of  Vincent  de  Paul ;  and  by  Claude  Lancelot,  of 
the  Seminary  of  St.  Nicolas  de  Chardonnet.  Others  followed 
after  some  interval.  Isaac  Lemaitre  de  Sacy,  one  of  the  most 
accomplished  Biblical  scholars  of  the  day ;  the  great  Antoine 
Arnauld  ;  and  Robert  Arnauld  d'Andilly,  a  considerable  lauded 
proprietor  and  the  head  of  the  family. 

These  multiplied  testimonies  to  the  force  of  St.  Cyran's  genius 
were  not  lost  upon  the  Church  at  large.  He  was  recognized  alike 
by  friend  and  foe  as  the  leader  of  a  great  religious  movement, 
which,  if  it  once  gained  sufficient  scope  for  development,  must 
work  important  changes,  whether  for  good  or  evil,  in  the  prevail- 
ing system  of  belief  and  discipline.  While  Richelieu  lived,  such 
opportunity  was  rigorously  withheld.  The  Cardinal  was  keenly 
alive  to  the  dangers  of  any  renewal  of  the  predestinarian  con- 
troversy, which  had  already  been  so  prolific  of  disorder  in  the 
Church ;  and  that  especially  when  it  was  certain  to  be  compli- 
cated with  other  aims  and  interests  of  a  far  more  practical 
nature.  So  long  as  he  retained  the  reins  of  power,  all  attempt 
at  agitation  in  this  direction  was  resolutely  suppressed.  The 
walls  of  Vincennes  guaranteed  the  harmlessness  of  St.  Cyran  ; 
and  his  disciples  showed  no  eagerness  to  commit  themselves 
to  any  energetic  course  of  action  in  the  absence  of  their  master. 
But  Richelieu's  tenure  of  authority  was  drawing  to  a  close. 
He  expired  on  the  4th  December,  1642 ;  displaying  in  his 
last  moments  a  tranquillity,  firmness,  and  confidence,  which  in- 
spired some  of  those  who  witnessed  the  scene  with  admiration, 
others  with  affright.*  The  situation  of  affairs  changed  forth- 
with. The  new  ministers,  though  professing  to  adopt  the 
principles  of  their  predecessor,  found  it  expedient  to  relax  in 
some  measure  the  severity  of  his  internal  government.  Many 
personages  of  distinction,  who  for  years  had  pined  in  captivity 


*  "Nimiiim  me  terret  magna  ista  sccuritas!"  was  the  whispered  ejaculation  of 
Cospe'an,  Bishop  of  Liskux. 


376  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  X. 

under  the  vengeance  of  the  Cardinal,  were  discharged  from  the 
state  prisons  ;  and  among  the  rest  St.  Cyran  recovered  his 
liberty.  He  quitted  Vincennes  on  the  16th  of  February,  1643, 
and  went  direct  to  the  monastery  of  Port  Royal  of  Paris,  where 
Angelique  Arnauld  and  her  sisterhood  had  been  so  ong  be- 
seeching Heaven  for  his  deliverance.  Next  he  proceeded  to 
visit  the  recluses  of  Port  Royal  des  Champs.  A  touching 
account  of  his  intercourse  with  them  on  this  occasion  is  given 
in  the  Memoirs  of  Fontaine,  who  was  one  of  the  fraternity,  and 
acted  as  secretary  to  Antoine  Arnauld.*  St.  Cyran  seems  to 
have  been  deeply  impressed  with  the  belief  that  he  was  giving 
them  his  parting  instructions,  and  that  his  removal  from  the 
world  was  at  hand.  His  presentiment  proved  true ;  this  extra- 
ordinary man  breathed  his  last  at  Paris  on  the  llth  of  October, 
1643.  He  was  buried  at  the  Church  of  St.  Jacques  du  Haut 
Pas;  the  Archbishop  of  Bordeaux  and  four  other  prelates, 
together  with  many  lay  friends  of  the  highest  rank,  assisting  at 
his  obsequies. 

Several  prominent  actors  on  the  stage  of  public  life  in  France 
disappeared  almost  simultaneously.  Louis  XIII.,  his  mother 
Mary  de  Medici,  Cardinal  Richelieu,  and  the  Abbe  de  St. 
Cyran,  all  passed  away  within  the  space  of  a  single  year. 
Louis  was  consoled  on  his  deathbed  by  the  ministrations  of 
Vincent  de  Paul,  for  whom  he  had  always  entertained  senti- 
ments of  special  veneration.  Two  subjects  are  said  to  have 
weighed  heavily  on  the  conscience  of  the  dying  monarch ;  the 
conversion  of  the  Huguenots,  and  the  responsibility  of  nominat- 
ing to  the  highest  church  preferments.  "  Oh !  M.  Vincent,"  he 
exclaimed,  "  if  God  should  restore  me  to  health,  I  would  never 
appoint  any  man  a  bishop  who  had  not  passed  three  years  with 
you!"  Louis  expired  on  the  14th  of  May,  1643.  Throughout 
life  he  had  been  under  the  spiritual  dominion  of  the  Jesuits. 
Fathers  Cotton,  Arnoux,  Seguiran,  Suffren,  Caussin,  Sirmond, 
and  Dinet,  successively  acted  as  directors  of  the  royal  con- 
science, and  displayed  no  common  gifts  of  tact  and  discretion 
in  the  fulfilment  of  their  office.  It  was  most  probably  by  the 
advice  of  the  last-named  confessor  that  the  state  prisoners  were 
liberated  after  the  death  of  Richelieu. 


*  Mtmoires  pour  servir  a  I'hisloire  de  Port  lloyal,  par  M.  Fontaine,  torn.  i.  p.  229. 


A.D.  529.  THE  JANSENISTIC  CONTROVERSY.  377 


CHAPTER    XL 

THE  successors  of  Bichelieu  were  not  strong  enough  to  carry 
on  the  system  of  despotic  repression  to  which  France  had 
surrendered  itself  during  more  than  eighteen  years.  Indeed, 
it  is  doubtful  whether  even  the  Cardinal  himself  could  have 
maintained  much  longer  the  restraints  which  he  had  imposed 
on  the  struggling  spirit  of  ecclesiastical  discord.  No  sooner 
was  that  stern  pressure  withdrawn  than  an  ebullition  of 
strife  followed,  which  to  the  Gallican  Church  proved  full 
of  peril  and  disaster,  and  which  has  left  its  permanent  mark 
upon  the  general  condition  of  Christendom.  This  was  the 
Jansenistic  controversy. 

Before  entering  on  the  details  of  a  contest  so  memorable 
for  the  magnitude  of  its  subject-matter,  for  the  character  of 
the  distinguished  actors  who  engaged  in  it,  and  for  its 
ultimate  consequences  to  the  Church  and  to  society,  it  may 
be  well  to  cast  a  glance  upon  the  previous  history  of  the 
theological  questions  which  were  now  to  be  brought  to  an 
issue. 

In  the  early  ages,  the  belief  of  Christians  upon  the  mys- 
teries of  grace  and  free-will  was  moulded  chiefly  by  the 
writings  of  St.  Augustine,  that  illustrious  champion  of  the 
faith  against  Manichean  and  Pelagian  heresy.  Not  that  the 
Church  ever  adopted  indiscriminately  all  the  opinions  of 
Augustine  on  these  subjects.  His  teaching  was  endorsed  by 
the  great  African  Council  against  the  Pelagians,  by  the 
decrees  of  the  Council  of  Orange  (A.D.  529)  against  the 
Massilians  or  Semi-Pelagians,  and  by  a  remarkable  epistle  of 
Pope  St.  Celestine  to  the  bishops  of  Gaul*  (A.D.  431)  to  which 
were  appended  certain  articles  or  canons  on  the  doctrine  of 


*  Ccelestini  Papas,  Epist.  II.  ad  Episcopos  Gallise,  ap.  Sirmond.,  Concil.  Ant. 

ill  I      t.r*m     i     r»    riS 


Gall ,  torn.  i.  p.  58. 


378  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XI. 

grace.*  But  the  principles  laid  down  in  these  documents  are  of 
a  general  nature ;  the  Church  forbore  to  decide  upon  questions 
which  were  not  considered  essential  to  the  integrity  of  the 
Divine  Deposit.  Thus  it  is  affirmed,  for  instance,  that  "  no  man 
can  extricate  himself  from  the  ruin  caused  by  Adam's  fall  by 
his  own  free-will,  or  without  the  operation  of  the  grace  of 
God."  "No  man  is  good  in  himself,  except  through  partici- 
pation in  the  nature  of  Him  who  alone  is  good."  "  No  man, 
although  renewed  by  the  grace  of  baptism,  can  conquer  the 
snares  of  the  devil  and  the  lusts  of  the  flesh,  except  by  the 
daily  assistance  of  God's  grace  enabling  him  to  persevere." 
"  No  man  can  make  a  good  use  of  his  free-will  except  through 
grace."  "  All  good  works  and  merits  are  the  gifts  of  God ;  who 
works  upon  the  hearts  of  men,  and  upon  free-will  itself,  in  such 
a  manner  that  every  motion  towards  good  proceeds  from  Him." 
"  Grace  avails  not  only  to  the  pardon  of  past  sin,  but  also  to 
make  us  love,  and  enable  us  to  perform,  that  which  we  know  to 
be  good."  "  Grace  does  not  take  away  free-will,  but  emanci- 
pates it,  and  makes  it  clear  instead  of  dark,  upright  instead  of 
infirm,  cautious  instead  of  thoughtless." 

Augustine,  however,  found  it  necessary,  in  order  to  combat  the 
insidious  cavils  of  the  heretics  of  his  day,  to  make  a  deeper  investi- 
gation into  the  problems  of  the  spiritual  world ;  and  we  need 
not  be  surprised  if  in  the  course  of  it  he  trespassed  upon  regions 
which  lie  beyond  the  ken  of  human  intellect,  and  thus  became 
sometimes  inconsistent,  and  sometimes  unintelligible, 

Augustine  does  not  deny  the  freedom  of  man's  will ;  on  the 
contrary,  he  affirms  it ;  |  but  with  certain  qualifications,  which 
leave  it  doubtful  whether  he  uses  that  expression  in  the  sense 
commonly  attached  to  it.  He  acknowledges  that  the  will  is 
naturally  free,  but  he  contrasts  this  liberty  with  that  which  it 
acquires  supernaturally  by  Divine  grace.  To  the  former  he  seems 
to  attribute  only  an  unlimited  capacity  for  evil ;  the  latter  he 
represents  as  impelled  almost  of  necessity  towards 

*  Prxteritorum  Sedis  Apostolicse 
Episcoporum  Auctoritates,  de  Gratia 
Dei  et  libero  voluntatis  arbitrio.  Sir- 
mond.,  torn.  i.  p.  58. 

t  Aug.  de  Grat.  et  lib.  arbit.,  cap.  2, 


nisi  adjuvetur  ab  Omnipotenti  bono." 
Aug.  T)e  Corrept.  et  Grat.,  cap.  11. 
"  In  malo  faciendo  liber  est  quisque 
justitise,  servusque  peccati ;  in  bono 
antem  liber  esse  nullus  potest,  nisi 


p.  9.  :   fuerit  liberatus  ab  Eo  qui  dixit,  si  vos 

J  "  Liberum    arbitrium    ad  malum    ]   Filius  liberaverit,  tune  verc  liberi  eri- 
sufficit,  ad  bonutn  autom  parum  ect,       tia."    lb.,  cap.  1. 


A.D.  529.        AUGUSTINE  ON  GRACE  AND  FREE-WILL. 


379 


In  like  manner  he  draws  a  contrast  between  the  two  kinds  of 
grace ;  that  which  belongs  to  the  state  of  nature,  and  that  which 
is  bestowed  through  Christ  under  the  new  covenant.  In  the 
original  state  in  which  Adam  was  created,  man  possessed  the 
power  to  obey  God,  and  to  persevere  in  obedience,  if  he  so 
willed.  This  is  called  by  Augustine  the  "  adjutorium  sine  quo 
non."  But  the  grace  required  by  man  in  his  fallen  state — 
the  grace  peculiar  to  the  Gospel — is  that  which  gives  not  only 
power  to  obey,  but  the  will  also.  This  is  the  "adjutorium  quo, 
or  per  quod,  fit  actio."*  This  latter  grace  acts  upon  the  will 
"  indefectibly  and  insuperably,"  so  that  it  never  fails — never  can 
fail — of  its  effectf 

This  effectual  grace,  however,  belongs  to  the  predestined 
only,  the  number  of  whom  is  fixed  and  certain.  Although  it  is 
written  "  God  will  have  all  men  to  be  saved,"  this  is  to  be  under- 
stood only  of  those  who  are  foreordained  to  salvation.  These 
will  assuredly  persevere  unto  the  end ;  but  those  who  are  not  to 
persevere — those  who  will  fall  away  from  the  Christian  state 
and  die  in  their  sins — have  never  been  really  sons  of  God,  never 
"  separated  from  the  mass  of  perdition,"  even  during  the  time 
when  they  lived  uprightly  and  piously.! 

Thus  Augustine  teaches  virtually,  if  not  in  express  terms, 
that  Divine  grace  is  irresistible.  But  if  so,  what  becomes  of 
the  freedom  of  the  will  ? 

Does  it  not  follow  that  those  who  obey  God  do  so  from  neces- 
sity ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  that  when  grace  is  withheld,  the 
will  is  of  necessity  determined  towards  sin  ? 


*  "  Tale  quippe  erat  adjutorium,  quod 
desereret  cum  vellet,  et  in  quo  per- 
maneret  si  vellet;  non  quo  fieret  ut 
vellet.  Hsec  prima  est  gratia  quse 
data  est  primo  Adam ;  sed  hac  potentior 
est  in  secundo  Adam.  Prima  est  enim, 
qua  fit  ut  habeat  homo  justitiam  si 
velit;  secunda  plus  potest,  qua  etiam 
fit  ut  velit."  "  Fit  quippe  in  nobis  per 
hanc  Dei  gratiam  ....  non  soliim 
posse  quod  volumus,  veriim  etiam  velle 
quod  possumus.  Quod  non  fuit  in 
homine  primo;  unum  enim  horum  in 
illo  fuit,  alterum  non  fuit." — De  Cor- 
rept.  et  Grat.,  cap.  11. 

"  Aliud  est  adjutorium  sine  quo  ali- 
quid  non  fit,  ct  aliud  est  adjutorium 
quo  aliquid  tit  ....  Primo  itaque 


homini  ....  datum  est  adjutorium 
perseverantise,  non  quo  fieret  ut  perse- 
veraret,  sed  sine  quo  per  liberum  arbi- 
trium  perseverare  non  posset.  Nunc 
verb  sanctis  in  regnum  Dei  per  gra- 
tiam Dei  prsedestinatis  non  tale  adju- 
torium datur,  sed  tale  ut  eis  perseve- 
rantia  ipsa  donetur ;  non  solum  ut  sine 
isto  dono  perseverantes  esse  non  pos- 
sint,  vertun  etiam  ut  per  hoc  donum  non 
nisi  perdeverantes  essent." — Ib.,  cap.  12. 

t  "  Subventum  est  igitur  infinnitati 
voluntatis  humanae,  ut  Diviua  Gratia 
indeclinabiliter  et  insuperabiliter  age- 
retur;  et  ide6,  quamvis  infirma,  nou 
tamen  deficeret,  neque  adversitate  ali- 
qua  vinceretur."  Ib.,  cap.  12. 

+  De  Corrept.  et  Grat.,  cap.  9. 


380 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  XI. 


In  order  to  meet  this  objection,  Augustine  observes  that 
necessity  is  not  incompatible,  in  one  sense,  with  the  freedom  of 
the  will.  Liberty  is  opposed,  not  to  moral  necessity,  but  to 
actual  violence  or  compulsion.  A  man  may  act  voluntarily, 
while  at  the  same  time  it  may  be  morally  impossible  that  he 
should  act  otherwise  than  he  does;  and  whatsoever  is  done 
willingly  is  also  done  freely.*  It  is  the  essence  of  efficacious 
grace,  that  it  imparts  the  will  to  obey  God;  and  therefore, 
although  such  grace  is  necessarily  followed  by  its  effect,  it  does 
no  violence  to  the  faculty  of  self-direction,  inasmuch  as  the  just 
man  obeys  God  from  choice,  from  love,  from  the  impulse  of  a 
new  and  sanctified  wilL 

By  moral  freedom,  Augustine  seems  to  have  understood 
simply  the  natural  action  of  the  human  will.  Taken  in  this 
sense,  his  reasoning  is  just,  for  the  will  can  only  act  by  willing 
to  act ;  it  cannot  act  in  contradiction  to  itself ;  it  cannot  help 
obeying  the  impulse  towards  good  or  evil  which  is  inseparable 
from  its  nature.  If  the  essence  of  liberty,  then,  consists  in  spon- 
taneity, the  will  must  always  be  free,  even  though  it  be  swayed 
in  point  of  fact  by  an  irresistible  necessity.  But  this  is  not  the 
ordinary  acceptation  of  the  term ;  it  is  usually  taken  to  signify 
bond  fide  ability  to  act  or  not  to  act — to  move  in  one  direction  or 
in  the  opposite — to  choose  or  to  reject — to  indulge  or  to  abstain. 

The  Augustinian  tradition  retained  for  several  centuries  its 
ascendency  in  the  theological  schools  of  the  West.  But  in  the 
course  of  ages  the  tone  of  Christian  feeling  gradually  receded 
from  this  system,  which  was  obviously  capable  of  being  per- 
verted into  a  reckless  fatalism.  A  reaction  set  in,  and  various 
causes  concurred  to  bring  about  important  modifications  in  the 
popular  teaching,  though  not  in  the  authoritative  definitions,  of 
the  Latin  Church.  A  large  section  of  the  Schoolmen  (the 
Scotists)  were  strenuous  asserters  of  the  real  freedom  of  the  will. 
Their  rivals,  the  Thomists,  professed  to  follow  St.  Augustine, 
and  in  some  respects  even  went  beyond  him,  since  they  held 
that  God  moves  the  will  by  a  direct  impulse  or  power  proceed- 
ing from  His  own  omnipotence;  yet  they  taught  that  grace 


*  Aug.  De  Civitat.  Dei,  Lib.  v.  cap. 
10.  "  Si  definitur  esse  necessitous,  se- 
cundiim  quain  dicimus  nccesse  esse  ut 
ita  sit  aliijtiid,  vel  ita  fiat ;  neocio  cur 


earn  tiineamus,  ne  nobis  libertatem 
auferat  voluiitatis."  Of.  De  Nat.  et 
Grat.,  capp.  46,  47,  48. 


A.D.  1542.  REACTION  FROM  AUGUSTINIANISM.  381 

sufficient  for  salvation  is  granted  to  all  the  baptized  through  the 
ordinary  channels ;  thus  excluding  any  notion  which  could  be 
taxed  as  derogatory  to  the  goodness  and  justice  of  Almighty 
God.  The  great  Erasmus  wrote  a  treatise  against  Luther  (his 
*  Diatribe  de  libero  arbitrio '),  in  which  he  exposed  with  severity 
the  pernicious  tendency  of  the  predestinarian  scheme,  and  advo- 
cated views  of  a  more  healthy  and  practical  complexion;  ascribing 
the  work  of  salvation  primarily  to  Divine  grace,  but  maintaining 
that  grace  may  be  abused,  and  that  free-will  co-operates  with 
God  throughout  the  entire  process  of  sanctification.  The  Theo- 
logical Faculty  of  Paris  expresses  itself  much  to  the  same  pur- 
pose in  one  of  the  Articles  drawn  up  by  order  of  Francis  I.  in 
1542,  preparatory  to  the  meeting  of  the  General  Council.  "  It 
is  to  be  held  with  the  same  constancy  of  faith,  that  man  possesses 
a  free  will,  by  which  he  is  able  to  act  well  or  ill,  and  by  means 
of  which,  even  if  he  should  have  fallen  into  mortal  sin,  he  may 
rise  again  to  a  state  of  grace  with  the  help  of  God."  * 

The  movement  is  further  traceable  in  the  records  of  the 
Council  of  Trent.  That  assembly,  among  other  subjects  of 
anxiety,  was  embarrassed  by  the  bitter  feud  which  reigned 
between  the  Dominican  and  Franciscan  orders.  All  parties 
were  agreed  as  to  the  urgent  duty  of  condemning  the  neces- 
sitarian theory  of  Luther ;  but  it  was  not  easy  to  do  this  without 
offending  the  Dominicans  —  whose  favourite  dogma  of  the 
"  praemotio  physica "  coincided  to  some  extent  with  that  of 
the  German  Reformer  in  principle,  though  they  abhorred  his  con- 
clusions— and  giving  a  too  decided  triumph  to  the  Franciscans, 
who  professed  opposite  opinions.  Taking  these  circumstances 
into  account,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  Tridentine  decrees  are  drawn 
in  terms  which  countenance  to  a  remarkable  extent  the  anti- 
Augustinian  doctrine.  The  4th  canon  on  Justification  (Sess.  IV. 
cap.  16)  runs  as  follows: — "If  any  one  shall  say  that  the  free 
will  of  man,  by  assenting  to  God  exciting  and  calling,  does  not 
co-operate  in  disposing  and  preparing  itself  to  obtain  the  grace 
of  justification  ;  or  that  it  cannot  refuse  consent  if  it  would,  but 
that,  like  a  thing  inanimate,  it  does  nothing  at  all,  but  remains 
in  a  merely  passive  state ;  let  him  be  anathema."  Again, 
Canon  IV.  of  the  same  session  is  thus  expressed : — "  If  any  one 


*  Contin.  de  Fleury,  Liv.  cxxx.,  §  30,  31. 


382  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XL 

shall  say  that  it  is  not  in  the  power  of  man  to  make  his  ways 
evil,  but  that  evil  works  are  wrought  by  God  as  well  as  good, 
not  by  permission  only,  but  by  His  direct  agency,  in  such  sense 
that  the  treason  of  Judas  was  no  less  His  work  than  the  calling 
of  Paul ;  let  him  be  anathema."  In  like  manner  when  treating 
of  the  gift  of  Perseverance  (Sess.  VI.  cap.  13),  the  Council 
declares  that  "  all  men  ought  to  repose  with  confidence  on  the 
help  of  God,  since,  unless  they  themselves  are  wanting  to  His 
grace,  He  who  hath  begun  the  good  work  will  also  perfect  it, 
working  in  them  to  will  and  to  do.  Nevertheless,  let  those 
who  think  they  stand  take  heed  lest  they  fall,  and  work  out 
their  own  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling." 

The  gradual  change  of  sentiment  upon  this  question  may  be 
further  illustrated  by  reference  to  the  Bull  by  which  Pope 
Pius  V.,  in  1567,  condemned  the  errors  of  Baius.  Several  of 
the  propositions  *  there  branded  as  heretical  are  to  be  found,  in 
terms  either  identical  or  equivalent,  in  different  parts  of  the 
writings  of  the  great  Bishop  of  Hippo.  Such,  for  instance,  are 
the  25th : — "  All  the  works  of  unbelievers  are  sins,  and  the  vir- 
tues of  the  philosophers  are  vices."  The  27th  : — "  Free  will, 
without  the  aid  of  God's  grace,  avails  only  to  the  commission  of 
sin."  The  39th : — "  What  is  done  voluntarily,  even  though  it 
be  done  of  necessity,  is  done  freely."  The  40th : — "  In  all  his 
acts  the  sinner  is  subservient  to  a  predominant  desire." 

The  fact  that  these  and  other  similar  statements  had  been 
pronounced  heretical  and  scandalous  by  the  Apostolic  See 
occasioned  the  utmost  perplexity  to  Jansenius,  as  he  candidly 
confesses  in  the  second  part  of  his  work.f  He  devotes  three 
chapters  to  a  laboured  attempt  to  explain  them  inoffensively, 
and  turn  aside  the  edge  of  the  Pontifical  censure ;  but  his  rea- 
soning is  lame  and  inconclusive  to  the  last  degree. 

The  growing  power  of  the  Jesuits  contributed  to  establish  a 


*  Many  of   these   propositions  had  sure ;  but,  as  to  others,  he  complained 

been  previously  censured  as  false  and  !   that  tl.e   Faculty  had   misunderstood 

heretical  by  the  Theological   Faculty  j   him.    He  seems  to  have  been  a  per- 

of  Paris  in  a  judgment  of  June  27,  j   tinacious  upholder  of   the    notion   of 

1560.     Baius  was  not  mentioned  by  liberty  as  opposed,  not  to  moral  neces- 

name  in  the  censure ;  notwithstanding  sity,  but  only  to  external  constraint  or 

wliich  he  published  soon  afterwards  un  j   violence.     Cont.  de  Fleuiy,  Liv.  civ. 

elaborate  statement  explanatory  of  his  f  Jans.  De  Statu  Nature  Lapste,  Lib. 

views  on  the  point  in  question.     In  iv.  cap.  25. 
some  instances  he  approved  the  cen- 


A.D.  1588. 


SYSTEM  OF  MOLINA. 


383 


style  of  teaching  more  in  accordance  with  the  grand  principle 
of  man's  moral  freedom  and  responsibility.  Without  professing 
openly  views  opposed  to  those  of  St.  Augustine,  members  of  that 
Society  held  and  asserted  very  generally,  towards  the  end  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  that  the  human  will  possesses  a  faculty 
of  disposing  itself  to  make  a  good  use  of  Divine  grace ;  that 
grace  sufficient  for  conversion  is  bestowed  on  all,  but  that,  inas- 
much as  it  does  not  act  in  the  way  of  positive  compulsion  or 
necessity,  it  may  either  be  complied  with  or  rejected  ;  and  that 
God  predestines  to  salvation  those  only  by  whom  He  foresees 
that  His  gifts  will  be  faithfully  employed.  These  opinions  were 
presented  to  the  world  in  a  philosophical  shape  by  a  Spanish 
Jesuit  named  Luis  Molina,  who  published  at  Lisbon,  in  1588, 
his  celebrated  treatise  '  De  liberi  arbitrii  cum  Gratiae  donis 
concordia.'  According  to  Molina,  the  Divine  Intellect  compre- 
hends three  different  species  or  modes  of  knowledge:  "  scientia 
natnralis,"  or  that  which  relates  to  events  caused  immediately 
by  God  himself;  "scientia  libera,"  which  belongs  to  things 
depending  on  His  own  free  will  and  choice;  and  "scientia 
media,"  which  is  concerned  with  future  contingencies,  dependent 
on  the  agency  of  man  under  particular  circumstances.  It  is 
upon  this  latter  kind  of  knowledge  that  God  founds  His  decrees 
of  predestination  and  election.  Predestination,  consequently,  is 
not  absolute  or  unconditional,  but  proceeds  upon  God's  fore- 
knowledge of  the  conduct  of  individuals  in  the  use  of  their 
natural  faculties  and  of  the  privileges  of  their  Christian  calling.* 
Thus  interpreted,  the  doctrine  of  eternal  election  is  compatible 
with  the  idea  of  moral  probation,  with  the  unconstrained  exer- 
cise of  man's  free  will,  and  with  the  truth  of  future  judgment 
according  to  works.  Yet  the  system  of  Molina  is  no  more  than 
a  plausible  approach  to  the  solution  of  problems  which,  as  all 
must  feel,  are  not  to  be  fathomed  to  the  bottom  by  our  finite 
powers.  It  is  open  to  objection  as  derogating  apparently  from 


*  This  was  the  opinion  of  St.  Francois 
de  Sales,  as  appears  from  the  following 
extract  from  a  letter  addressed  by  him 
to  F.  Lessius  of  Louvain,  Aug.  26, 
1613.  "  Cognovi  Paternitatem  vestram 
sententiam  illam,  antiquitate,  suavitate, 
ac  Scripturarum  nativa  auctoritate  no- 
bilissimam,  de  Prsodestinatione  ad  Glo- 


riam  post  prsevisa  opera  amplecti  ac 
tueri ;  quod  sane  mihi  gratissimum  fuit, 
qui  nimirum  earn  semper,  ut  Dei  niise- 
ricordiae  ac  gratise  magis  consentaneam, 
veriorem  ac  amabiliorem  existimavi ; 
quod  etiam  tantisper  in  libello  de 
Atnore  Dei  indicavi." 


384 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  XI. 


the  sovereignty  of  Divine  grace  by  making  it  subject  to  the 
independent  agency  of  man ;  for  Molina,  while  admitting  the 
necessity  both  of  prevenient  and  assisting  grace,  yet  held  that 
without  the  adhesion  of  the  natural  will  grace  does  not  become 
effectual  to  its  designed  purpose.  He  coincided  in  this  respect 
with  the  so-called  Semi-Pelagians — a  school  of  theology  founded 
in  the  fifth  century  by  Cassianus  and  other  monks  of  the  Abbey 
of  S.  Victor  at  Marseilles.  The  teaching  of  these  "  Massilians  " 
was  in  considerable  vogue  for  some  time  in  the  south  of  France ; 
but  it  was  rejected  ultimately,  as  conflicting  with  the  paramount 
authority  of  St.  Augustine.*  It  was  vigorously  combated  by 
S.  Prosper  of  Aquitaine,  and  was  censured  by  the  Council  of 
Orange,  A.D.  529.  By  means  of  a  slightly  varying  terminology, 
Molina  and  his  followers  avoided  the  precise  formula  in  which 
the  misbelief  of  the  Semi-Pelagians  had  been  condemned  by  the 
ancient  Church. 

The  Jesuits  never  formally  acknowledged  the  theory  of 
Molina  to  be  their  own ;  but  it  was  natural  that  they  should 
defend  his  book,  out  of  zeal  for  the  honour  and  interest  of  their 
Society.  The  work  was  violently  attacked  by  the  Dominicans 
and  other  Augustinian  divines ;  and  at  length,  in  1598,  Pope 
Clement  VIII.  was  induced  to  appoint  a  commission  to  examine 
it,  which  took  the  name  of  the  "  Congregatio  de  auxiliis,"  as 
having  for  its  subject  the  supernatural  assistance  given  to  man- 
kind by  Divine  grace.  Years  of  tedious  controversy  followed. 
Clement  himself  leaned  towards  the  Thomists;  and  it  is  said 
that  at  one  time  ho  was  on  the  point  of  deciding  in  their  favour, 
but  was  deterred  by  the  influence  of  Cardinal  du  Perron,  who 
declared  that  if  the  "  praedeterminatio  physica"  were  defined 
to  be  the  doctrine  of  the  Church,  he  would  undertake  to  make 
all  the  Protestants  in  Europe  subscribe  to  it.f  Clement  died  in 
1605,  leaving  the  cause  undecided.  The  sittings  of  the  Congre- 
gation were  resumed  under  Paul  V.,  but  little  progress  was 
made  towards  a  definite  conclusion.  This  Pope  at  length  referred 
the  questions  in  debate  to  two  of  the  greatest  theologians 
of  the  time,  Franpois  de  Sales  and  Du  Perron.  The  advice 
which  they  tendered  to  him  was  never  made  public,  but  its 


*  Two  of  St.  Augustine's  treatises — 
De  Prsedestinatione  Sanctorum '  and 
De  Dono  Perseverautife  '  —  were  di- 


rected n  gainst  the  Semi-Pelagians. 

t  D'Avrigny,  Mem.  Chronol.,  torn.  i. 
p.  85. 


A.D.  1607.  THE  CONGREGATION  DE  AUXILIIS.  885 

purport  may  be  inferred  from  the  result.  On  the  28th  of 
August,  1607,  the  Pope  held  a  meeting  of  the  Congregation, 
and  announced  that  their  labours  were  at  an  end ;  that  he 
would  make  known  his  decision  when  he  judged  it  expedient ; 
and  that  in  the  mean  time  he  prohibited  all  agitation  of  the 
disputed  questions,  and  warned  the  contending  parties  to  avoid 
mutual  recrimination  and  imputations  of  false  doctrine.  No 
formal  judgment  was  ever  issued.  The  Holy  See,  by  this  wise 
policy,  virtually  granted  toleration  to  both  systems,  on  the  under- 
standing that  nothing  should  be  publicly  advanced  on  one  side 
or  the  other  which  contravened  the  authoritative  decrees  of  the 
Church,  whether  ancient  or  modern.  The  effect,  however,  was 
a  triumph  for  the  Molinists ;  who  thus  for  the  first  time  obtained 
a  quasi  -  recognition  of  their  orthodoxy  from  the  chair  of 
St.  Peter. 

Such  was  the  state  of  parties  in  this  controversy  about  the 
time  when  Jansenius  began  to  apply  himself  seriously  to  the 
study  of  the  works  of  St.  Augustine.  That  divine  had  been  a 
pupil  of  Baius  in  the  University  of  Louvain ;  where  he  had 
learned  both  to  identify  the  views  of  his  master  with  the  teaching 
of  the  "  doctor  of  grace,"  and  to  regard  the  latter  as  an  exclusive 
and  infallible  oracle  in  the  exposition  of  Catholic  truth.  During 
a  sojourn  at  Paris  in  1605,  Jansenius  became  acquainted  with 
Du  Verger  de  Hauranne ;  and  an  intimate  friendship  was  soon 
formed  between  these  two  young  enthusiasts.  Their  dispositions 
were  very  similar;  their  favourite  studies  had  converged  upon 
the  same  engrossing  theme,  and  they  were  well  fitted  to  act  in 
concert  for  the  same  objects  in  the  busy  drama  of  life.  In  1611 
they  repaired  together  to  Bayonne,  the  native  place  of  De 
Hauranne ;  and  here  they  dedicated  themselves  for  the  space  of 
five  years,  with  intense  and  indefatigable  ardour,  to  the  study  of 
Holy  Scripture  and  patristic  divinity,  especially  the  writings 
of  St.  Augustine.  During  that  period  the  plan  of  operations 
was  devised  and  matured,  by  which  they  proposed  to  restore  to 
the  Church  the  true  primitive  doctrine  of  grace,  which  for  many 
centuries  past  (as  they  affirmed)  had  been  utterly  obscured  and 
lost. 

In  1616  the  Bishop  of  Bayonne,  who  had  been  translated  to 
the  Archbishopric  of  Tours,  carried  Jansenius  and  De  Hauranne 
with  him  to  the  north  of  France.  The  two  friends  now  separated. 

VOL.  i.  2  c 


38()  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XI. 

Jansenius  returned  to  Lou  vain,  where  lie  became  President  of 
the  College  of  S.  Pulcheria  and  Professor  of  Divinity.  De 
Hauranne  was  recommended  by  the  new  Archbishop  of  Tours 
to  his  suffragan  the  Bishop  of  Poitiers,  by  whom  he  was  made 
Grand  Vicar  of  that  diocese,  Canon  of  the  Cathedral,  and  lastly 
Abbot  of  S.  Cyran — a  dignity  which  the  bishop  himself  resigned 
in  his  favour.  His  subsequent  history  has  already  been  detailed 
in  these  pages. 

The  laborious  investigations  which  engrossed  the  mind  of 
Jansenius  were  prosecuted  without  intermission  till  his  death  in 
the  year  1638.  The  fruit  of  this  lifelong  toil — the  too-celebrated 
'Augustinus'* —  was  entrusted  by  his  will  to  his  literary 
executors,  Libert  Fromont  and  Henri  Calenus,  who  published  it 
at  Louvain  in  1640,  suppressing  a  letter  written  by  the  author 
just  before  his  death,  in  which  he  had  submitted  himself  and  his 
work,  in  terms  of  profound  humility,  to  the  judgment  of  the 
Holy  See.  The  book  soon  found  its  way  into  France,  and  was 
reprinted  at  Paris  in  1641,  with  the  official  approbation  of  six 
doctors  of  the  Sorbonne.  Another  edition  appeared  not  long 
afterwards  at  Kouen.  Eichelieu,  who,  as  we  have  seen  in  a 
preceding  chapter,  had  conceived  a  violent  prejudice  against 
Jansenius  and  his  school,  exerted  himself  to  procure  a  censure 
of  the  '  Augustinus '  from  the  Sorbonne,  but  without  success. 
The  Jesuits,  however,  made  such  effectual  use  of  their  influence 
at  Rome,  that  a  decree  of  the  Inquisition  was  obtained  in  August, 
1641,  condemning  the  work,  not  on  the  score  of  false  doctrine, 
but  as  disrespectful  to  the  Holy  See,  which  had  expressly  enjoined 
silence  on  those  controverted  questions.  Early  in  the  year  fol- 
lowing Pope  Urban  VIII.,  by  his  bull  "In  eminenti,"  renewed 
the  censures  of  his  predecessors  Pius  V.  and  Gregory  XIII.  on  the 
predestinarian  errors  of  Baius,  and  prohibited  the  '  Augustinus,' 
as  reproducing  those  reprehensible  views.  But  the  decree  of 
the  Inquisition  was  powerless  in  France,  that  tribunal  being 
unrecognized  by  the  law ;  and  the  bull  "  In  eminenti "  was  for 
a  long  time  treated  as  invalid,  by  reason  of  an  alleged  ambiguity 
as  to  the  date  of  its  publication.  Meanwhile  the  'Augustinus' 


*  The  title  at  full  length  is  '  Cor-  (  de  humarue  naturso  Sanitate,  regri- 
nelii  Janscnii  Episcopi  Iprensis  Augus-  tudine,  Mcdicina,  adversus  Pelagianos 
tinus ;  sen  doctrina  Sancti  Augustini  et  Massilienses.' 


A.D.  1642.  JANSENISM— THE  '  AUGUSTINUS.'  387 

was  read  with,  avidity,  and  the  disciples  of  Jansenius  and  St. 
Cyran  rapidly  multiplied  on  all  sides. 

The  Jansenists  (they  were  by  this  time  of  sufficient  importance 
to  be  called  by  the  name  which  they  have  ever  since  borne  in 
history)  employed  every  available  artifice  to  prevent  the  recep- 
tion of  the  bull  "  In  eminenti,"  both  in  Flanders  and  in  France. 
They  pretended  that  it  could  not  be  genuine,  since  it  professed 
to  be  issued  at  Rome  on  the  6th  of  March,  1641,  whereas  the 
copy  despatched  to  Brussels  by  the  Nuncio  at  Cologne  was  dated 
in  1642.  This  arose  simply  from  the  difference  between  the  old 
and  new  calendars  as  to  the  time  of  commencing  the  year.  The 
ancient  computation,  according  to  which  the  year  began  on  the 
Feast  of  the  Annunciation,  March  25,  was  in  use  at  Rome,  and 
therefore  the  6th  of  March  fell  within  the  year  1641 ;  but  the 
Nuncio,  writing  from  Cologne,  had  followed  the  modern  almanac, 
which  of  course  reckoned  the  whole  of  that  month  in  1642.* 
It  was  alleged,  further,  that  the  Jesuits  had  gained  over  some 
of  the  officials  of  the  Roman  curia,  and  that  by  their  means  the 
bull  had  been  deliberately  falsified.  The  '  Augustinus,'  it  was 
urged,  was  the  result  of  twenty-two  years'  unremitting  study  of 
the  entire  works  of  the  "  doctor  of  grace ; "  it  was  altogether 
inconceivable,  therefore,  that  it  should  not  be  an  accurate 
transcript  of  his  mind.  But  St.  Augustine  had  ever  been  ac- 
counted the  legitimate  interpreter  of  the  Church  of  the  West 
in  that  department  of  theology;  so  that,  in  censuring  Jan- 
senius, the  Pope  would  be  contradicting  the  authoritative 
tradition  of  the  Church  herself.  The  University  of  Louvain 
endorsed  these  arguments  in  favour  of  the  late  Bishop  of 
Ypres,  who  had  been  one  of  its  most  distinguished  ornaments ; 
and  the  clergy  of  the  Netherlands,  in  spite  of  repaated  remon- 
strances from  Rome,  remained  obstinate  in  refusing  to  accept 
the  buU. 

Nor  was  it  received  more  cordially  in  France.  The  Nuncio 
Grimaldi  laid  it  before  the  Royal  Council  on  ecclesiastical 
affairs,  urging  that  it  should  be  published  with  the  usual 
formalities.  Several  members  of  the  Board — Vincent  de  Paul 
among  the  number  f — spoke  in  support  of  the  bull ;  but  the 


p.  151. 


D'Avrigny,  Ntm.  Chronol.,  torn.  i. 


t  Vincent  de  Paul  held  the  doctrine 


of  Jansenius  to  be  identical  with  that 
of  Baius,  already  condemned  by  the 
Church.  He  declared,  moreover,  that 

2  c  2 


388  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XI. 

majority  were  of  the  contrary  opinion,  and  in  consequence  no 
action  was  taken  on  the  subject.  Some  few  French  prelates 
published  mandements  enjoining  obedience  to  the  Pope's  de- 
cree ;  among  them  was  the  Archbishop  of  Paris,  Jean  Franqois 
de  Gondi.  "  Our  holy  Father  the  Pope,"  he  wrote,  in  a  pastoral 
dated  December  llth,  1643,  "  having  taken  measures  to  pre- 
serve the  peace  of  the  Church  in  the  dangers  which  now  threaten 
it,  it  becomes  our  duty  to  notify  to  you  his  decision,  in  order 
that  you  may  receive  it  as  proceeding  from  that  chair  where 
the  Divine  Spirit  vouchsafes  His  utterances;  that  you  may 
obey  it  with  all  the  respect  and  submission  which  are  due  to  it ; 
and  that  those  who  by  the  love  of  disputation,  rather  than  by 
the  love  of  truth,  may  have  been  led  astray  into  contrary  senti- 
ments may  be  recalled  by  the  voice  of  the  Universal  Pastor  to 
the  unity  of  the  Catholic  faith.  To  this  end  we  do,  by  our 
arehiepiscopal  authority,  prohibit  the  book  called  'Augus- 
tinus,'  lately  published  under  the  name  of  Cornelius  Janse- 
nius,  Bishop  of  Ypres,  which  contains  propositions  condemned 
as  heretical  by  the  Holy  See.  Let  no  man,  then,  henceforth 
have  the  temerity  to  maintain  the  opinions  proscribed  by  this 
constitution." 

\Vhen  the  bull  was  presented  to  the  Sorbonne,  backed  by 
a  Royal  lettre  de  cachet  and  by  the  Archbishop's  pastoral 
circular,  it  was  objected  to  on  the  ground  that  it  recited 
certain  decrees  of  the  Inquisition, — a  tribunal  unknown  to 
French  law.  A  committee,  however,  was  appointed  to  ex- 
amine the  matter.  At  this  moment  a  pamphlet  appeared 
with  the  title  of '  Difficultes  sur  la  bulle  qui  porte  defense  de 
lire  Jansenius.'*  It  was  from  the  pen  of  Antoine  Arnauld, 
who  now,  at  scarcely  more  than  thirty  years  of  age,  began  to 
signalise  himself  in  the  front  rank  of  Jansenist  polemics.  The 
performance  displayed  rare  ability,  and  doubtless  had  its  influ- 
ence on  the  report  of  the  committee.  The  Sorbonne  ultimately 
decided  against  the  registration  of  the  bull ;  but  took  occasion 
at  the  same  time  to  forbid  all  doctors  and  bachelors  to  main- 
tain the  propositions  therein  censured  by  Pope  Urban,  together 
with  the  errors  of  Baius  condemned  by  his  predecessors.! 


St.  Cyran  hnd  frankly  acknowledged 
that  the  main  objrct  of  the  present 
movement  was  to  discredit  and  ruin 
the  Jesuits.  See  Collet,  Vie  de  S.  Vin- 


cent de  Paul,  torn.  ii.  p.  583. 

*  (Euvres  d'Arnauld,  torn.  xxvi. 

f  Gerberon,  Hist.  Ge'ne'rale  du  Jan- 
senisme,  torn.  i.  p.  150. 


A.D.  1044.      ANTOINE  ARNAULD  DEFENDS  JANSEN1US.          389 

These  proceedings  only  served  to  swell  the  tide  of  agitation 
excited  by  the  ill-starred  publication  of  Jansenius.  Isaac 
Habert,  doctor  of  the  Sorbonne  and  Canon  "Theologal"*  of 
Notre  Dame,  attacked  it  violently  from  the  pulpit  of  that 
cathedral.  This  brought  him  into  conflict  with  Arnauld,  who, 
in  1644,  published  his  first '  Apology  for  Jansenius.'  Habert 
promptly  rejoined  with  his  '  Defense  de  la  foi  de  1'Eglise  et  de 
1'tmcienne  doctrine  de  Sorbonne  touchant  les  principaux  points 
de  la  grace.'  Arnauld's  '  Second  Apology '  soon  followed,  in  a 
style  of  greater  warmth  and  vigour  than  the  first ;  he  vindi- 
cated the  Flemish  prelate  with  the  utmost  vehemence  from 
the  imputation  of  heresy,  and  insisted  that  his  book  contained 
neither  more  nor  less  than  the  pure  invariable  belief  of  the 
Church  Catholic.  These  productions  caused  a  wonderful  sensa- 
tion, and  enraged  the  Ultramontanes  beyond  measure.  Arnauld 
had  composed  a  third  Apology,  which  was  in  the  hands  of 
the  printer,  when  his  antagonist  Habert  was  promoted  to  the 
bishopric  of  Vabres,  upon  which  he  suppressed  it  out  of  respect 
for  the  episcopal  office. 

Arnauld  was  never  more  completely  in  his  element  than  in 
the  " heady  fight"  of  controversy.  While  thus  bearing  the 
brunt  of  the  fray  on  behalf  of  Jansenius,  he  was  engaged  in 
another  contest,  which  placed  him  in  still  more  direct  oppo- 
sition to  the  Jesuits.  A  feud  of  long  standing  existed  between 
that  Society  and  the  Arnauld  family.  The  father  of  Antoine 
Arnauld,  formerly  Procureur-General  to  Queen  Catherine  de 
Medici,  and  one  of  the  most  celebrated  advocates  at  the  bar  of 
Paris,  had  acted  as  counsel  for  the  University  against  the 
Jesuits  on  an  important  occasion  (already  alluded  tof)  in 
the  year  1594,  and  had  gained  his  cause.  This  success,  the 
consequence  of  which  was  the  banishment  of  the  Order  from 
France,  was  never  forgotten  or  forgiven  by  the  defeated  party. 
Antoine,  the  youngest  son  of  the  great  pleader,  was  born  in 
1612,  and  at  an  early  age  manifested  extraordinary  talent, 
combined  with  an  almost  insatiable  love  of  study.  He  applied 

*  The  "  theologal "  was  a  special  institution  dates  from  the  Council  of 

preacher  attached  to    cathedral    and  Basle  and  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  of 

collegiate  churches,  who  occupied  the  Bourges,   and   was    confirmed  by  the 

pulpit   on   Sundays    and   great    festi-  Council  of  Trent.     The  theologal  en- 

vals,   and  gave   lectures  on  Scripture  joyed  a  canonry  by  virtue  of  his  office, 

and  divinity  during  the  week.     The  ;        f  See  above,  Chap.  III.  p.  197. 


390  THE  GALLICAN  CHUKCH.  CHAP.  XI. 

himself  to  theology,  and  became  a  pupil  of  Lescot ;  but  alter  a 
time  grew  dissatisfied  with  the  views  of  that  divine,  and  adopted 
with  intense  ardour  those  of  Jansenius  and  St.  Cyran.  On  this 
account  he  met  with  considerable  difficulty  in  proceeding  to 
degrees  at  the  Sorbonne ;  but  these  being  at  length  overcome, 
Arnauld  acquitted  himself  in  the  prescribed  exercises  to  the 
amazement  (ad  stuporem)  of  the  examiners,  and  was  received 
doctor  of  the  Sorbonne  in  1641.  He  had  been  ordained  priest 
in  the  previous  year.  In  his  academical  theses  Arnauld  had 
shewn  himself  vehemently  opposed  to  the  system  commonly 
advocate  1  by  the  Jesuits ;  but  his  active  warfare  with  the  In- 
stitute commenced  on  the  occasion  of  his  treatise  '  De  la  fre- 
qnente  Communion,'  which  was  published  in  August,  1643.  It 
arose  from  the  following  circumstances. 

A  too  general  laxity  seems  to  have  prevailed  among  Catholics 
of  that  day  with  regard  to  the  use  of  the  Sacraments,  particu- 
larly those  of  Penance  and  the  Eucharist.  Absolution  was  dis- 
pensed in  the  confessional  upon  terms  which  were  practically 
subversive  of  all  discipline.  Even  in  the  case  of  gross  habitual 
sinners,  it  was  seldom  attempted  to  insist  on  satisfactory  proof 
of  penitence,  according  to  primitive  rule,  before  admission  to 
the  holy  mysteries.  So  long  as  a  mechanical  round  of  external 
ceremonies  was  duly  practised,  the  confessor  laid  little  or  no 
stress  on  the  necessity  of  inward  purity  and  contrition  of  heart. 
This  state  of  things  resulted,  in  great  measure,  from  the 
false  casuistry  and  worldly-minded  policy  of  the  Jesuits.  These 
Fathers  had  gained  for  themselves  an  unrivalled  reputation  as 
directors  of  the  conscience.  It  was,  no  doubt,  substantially 
well  founded ;  but,  in  order  to  enlarge  and  perpetuate  it,  they 
had  been  induced  to  adopt  various  maxims  and  expedients 
which  were  calculated  to  make  religion  palatable  to  men  living 
an  ordinary  life  in  the  world ;  to  render  the  outward  require- 
ments of  the  Gospel  compatible  with  political  ambition,  with 
selfish  indolence,  or  even  with  fashionable  dissipation.  The  so- 
called  Keformers,  unfortunately,  had  depreciated  and  disparaged 
the  visible  means  of  grace.  Everything,  in  their  estimation, 
was  of  secondary  importance  compared  with  certain  subjective 
emotional  qualities  —  the  peculiar  marks,  as  they  regarded 
them,  of  the  regenerate  mind.  Confession  and  absolution  they 
discarded  as  unnecessary,  if  not  positively  anti-Christian;  even 


A.D.  1644.      PREVAILING  ABUSE  OP  THE  SACRAMENTS.  391 

the  Holy  Eucharist  was  valued  by  them  chiefly  as  an  expressive 
symbol,  designed  to  quicken  the  moral  sense  and  spiritual  affec- 
tions of  the  recipient.  The  Jesuits,  in  their  zeal  against  these 
fundamental  errors,  had  countenanced  notions  scarcely  less 
objectionable  in  the  opposite  direction ;  and  a  dangerous  re- 
action had  ensued.  The  Jansenists  felt  the  necessity  of  making 
an  effort  to  readjust  the  balance ;  and  their  protest  was  raised 
with  equal  vigour  against  the  doctrinal  aberrations  of  Geneva 
and  the  practical  abuses  of  Rome  in  its  Ultramontane  dress. 
The  movement  originated  by  St.  Cyran  and  Arnauld  aimed  at 
restoring  the  reality  and  power  of  religion  through  the  right 
use  of  its  sacramental  ordinances.  It  has  sometimes  been  ima- 
gined that,  because  the  Jansenists  agreed  with  the  disciples  of 
Calvin  in  extolling  the  sovereign  efficacy  of  Divine  grace, 
therefore  the  two  systems  were  in  all  respects  identical.  Jan- 
senism has  been  represented  as  simply  another  phase  of  rebel- 
lion against  the  authority  of  the  existing  Church ;  but  this  is 
a  misconception  of  its  character.  The  divines  of  that  school 
clung  steadfastly  to  the  orthodox  tradition  as  to  the  super- 
natural virtue  of  the  Sacraments,  the  divine  authority  of  the 
Priesthood,  the  power  of  the  Keys,  the  office  of  the  Church  as 
the  infallible  teacher  and  judge  of  truth ;  and  thus  severed  them- 
selves by  a  broad  line  of  demarcation  from  Protestant  sec- 
taries, however  designated.  They  were,  in  the  strictest  sense, 
Catholics;  but  their  ideal  of  Catholicism  was  not  an  easy, 
accommodating  system,  which  reconciled  high  religious  pro- 
fession with  a  life  of  unrestrained  worldliness,  but  an  earnest 
application  of  Christian  doctrine  and  Christian  ordinances  to 
the  indispensable  work  of  man's  personal  renewal  in  holiness. 
If  they  erred  (as  unquestionably  they  did  err)  by  taking  an 
exaggerated  and  distorted  view  of  the  sense  of  Holy  Scripture 
and  the  Fathers  on  certain  points  of  metaphysical  theology,  all 
honour  is  due  to  them,  nevertheless,  for  their  endeavours 
to  revive  the  flame  of  evangelical  piety  among  the  mass  of 
nominal  Christians,  and  to  withstand  the  flood  of  Sadducean 
profaneness  which  threatened  to  inundate  the  sanctuary  of 
the  Church. 

Such,  generally,  was  the  purpose  of  Arnauld's  great  work, 
'  Sur  la  frequente  Communion.'  The  Princess  de  Eohan- 
Gueniene,  a  court  beauty  whose  early  life  had  been  notoriously 


392  THE  GALL1CAN' CHURCH.  CHAP.  XI. 

irregular,  had  placed  herself  in  1639  under  the  spiritual  guid- 
ance of  the  Abbe  de  St.  Cyran.  From  him  she  received  a  rule 
of  considerable  strictness ;  special  restraint  being  imposed  upon 
her  with  regard  to  certain  worldly  habits  and  indulgences  which 
had  been  proved  by  experience  to  be  temptations  to  sin.  One 
day  the  Princess  was  asked  by  her  friend  the  Marquise  de 
Sable  to  accompany  her  to  a  ball ;  she  declined,  on  the  ground 
that  she  had  received  the  holy  Communion  the  same  morning, 
and  that  under  such  circumstances  the  instructions  of  her 
confessor  forbade  her  to  spend  the  evening  in  gay  amusement. 
Further  discussion  ensued  between  the  two  ladies  as  to  the 
different  principles  by  which  each  was  governed.  The  rule 
prescribed  by  St.  Cyran  was  submitted  to  F.  de  Sesmaisons,  a 
Jesuit,  the  confessor  of  Mme.  de  Sable ;  and  that  divine  thought 
proper  to  publish  a  treatise  in  opposition  to  it,  in  which  both 
St.  Cyran  and  his  system  of  spiritual  direction  were  severely 
criticised.  Among  other  things  Sesmaisons  was  rash  enough 
to  assert  that  "  the  more  destitute  we  are  of  grace,  the  more 
boldly  ought  we  to  approach  Jesus  Christ  in  the  holy  Eucharist ; 
the  more  full  we  are  of  self-love  and  worldliness,  the  more 
often  ought  we  to  communicate."  It  was  to  refute  this  mon- 
strous paradox  that  Arnauld  composed  his  book  on  '  Frequent 
Communion;'  one  of  the  finest  specimens  of  close  and  exact 
reasoning  in  the  French  language.  Its  appearance  has  been 
styled  an  epoch  in  the  national  literature,  from  its  luminous 
perspicuity  and  irresistible  force  of  logic.*  Sixteen  prelates 
and  twenty  doctors  of  divinity  stamped  it  with  their  approba- 
tion, expressed  in  unqualified  terms.  It  is  of  great  length, 
occupying  nearly  the  whole  of  one  of  the  quarto  volumes  of 
Arnauld's  works.f 

The  mam  position  for  which  the  author  contends  is  this ; 
that  it  is  not  desirable  to  encourage  indiscriminately  the  habit 
of  partaking  of  the  holy  Communion  every  week;  that  those 
whose  consciences  are  stained  by  mortal  sin  ought  not  to 
approach  the  Lord's  Table  immediately  after  they  have  con- 
tessed,  but  to  abstain  for  a  season,  in  order  to  prepare  and 
purify  themselves  by  exercises  of  penitence.  He  reviews  the 


*  Bonav.  Racine,  Hist.  Eccles.  torn.  xii.  Art.  18. 
f  (Eumes  d' Arnauld,  torn,  xxvii. 


A.D.  1644.      ANT.  ARNAULD  ON  FREQUENT  COMMUNION.          393 

penitential  discipline  of  the  early  Church,  and  shows  that 
the  Fathers  enjoined,  in  the  first  place,  confession ;  next, 
penance ;  thirdly,  the  fulfilment  of  that  penance,  extending 
over  a  sufficient  space  of  time ;  and  lastly,  absolution,  to  be 
immediately  followed  by  Communion.  If  in  modern  times  the 
primitive  rule  cannot  be  carried  out  in  its  strict  letter,  its 
spirit,  says  Arnauld,  ought  at  least  to  be  preserved ;  and  other 
means  should  be  adopted  to  compensate  for  that  outward 
penance,  which  was  found  so  conducive  to  true  and  solid 
conversion.  "  According  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Fathers,  it  is 
no  affair  of  a  moment  to  dispose  sinners  to  receive  with  profit 
the  absolution  of  the  priest ;  and  something  more  than  words 
is  requisite  to  satisfy  the  priest  of  the  reality  of  a  sinner's 
repentance.  The  new  man  is  not  formed  instantaneously,  any 
more  than  the  old ;  it  is  developed  by  degrees,  and  often  a  long 
time  passes  before  it  actually  conies  to  the  birth.  The  work  of 
reclaiming  a  soul  to  God  and  rescuing  it  from  Satan  and  sin, 
is  not  such  an  easy  matter  as  to  warrant  one  in  supposing  that 
as  soon  as  sin  has  been  verbally  confessed,  and  a  resolution  has 
been  declared  to  serve  God  for  the  future,  the  effect  follows  at 
once  and  of  course ;  that  all  those  chains  are  instantly  broken 
which  withhold  the  soul  from  God,  that  the  heart  of  stone  is 
suddenly  transformed  into  a  heart  of  flesh,  and  that,  whereas 
formerly  all  its  desires  were  centred  in  the  creature,  it  acquires, 
as  if  by  magic,  a  will  devoted  exclusively  to  the  service  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Others  may  expect  this  if  they  please ;  for  myself, 
I  consider  it  safer  to  follow  the  advice  of  Augustine  and  all 
the  other  Fathers,  to  shun  precipitate  remedies,  and  to  aspire  to 
the  higher  graces  of  the  spiritual  life  by  the  means  which 
Christ  himself  has  pointed  out — by  asking,  by  seeking,  by 
knocking;  in  short,  to  establish  the  work  of  conversion  upon 
the  solid  basis  of  a  lengthened  and  serious  repentance ;  keeping 
constantly  in  view  the  admonition  of  the  Wise  Man,  "An  inherit- 
ance may  be  gotten  hastily  at  the  beginning,  but  the  end  thereof 
shall  not  be  blessed."  * 

In  treating,  towards  the  conclusion  of  his  work,  of  the  dis- 
positions which  qualify  the  penitent  to  communicate  profitably, 
Arnauld,  in  his  zeal  against  the  errors  he  is  combating,  is 

*  Prov.  xx.  21. 


394 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  XI. 


betrayed  into  a  tone  of  exaggeration ;  insisting  on  so  lofty  a 
standard  of  attainment  in  some  particulars,  as  to  run  the  risk 
of  repelling,  instead  of  encouraging,  the  timid  and  sensitive 
mind. 

Yet,  while  enlarging  on  the  duty  of  systematic  preparation  for 
holy  Communion,  to  protect  the  Sacrament  from  abuse,  the  author 
severely  reprehends  those  who  through  mere  indolence  and 
carelessness  remain  contentedly  strangers  to  the  Lord's  Table. 
"  When  I  speak  of  thus  separating  oneself  for  a  time  from  the 
Body  of  the  Son  of  God,  the  better  to  prepare  for  its  reception, 
I  am  very  far  from  excusing  the  culpable  negligence  of  those 
who  are  glad  to  escape  from  the  duty  of  frequent  Communion 
under  shelter  of  a  religious  pretext;  for  the  same  thing  is 
done  in  their  case  through  an  indifference  which  Holy  Scrip- 
ture threatens  with  the  severest  penalties,  that  with  others 
arises  from  feelings  of  profound  humility,  and  from  love  to 
Christ  as  fervent  as  it  is  full  of  veneration.  As  there  was 
formerly  a  custom  of  deferring  the  administration  of  baptism, 
which  the  Church  approved  when  it  was  deferred  for  the  sake 
of  long-continued  preparation  and  probation,  while  it  was  con- 
demned when  men  postponed  baptism  merely  that  they  might 
lead  a  worldly  licentious  life,  such  as  they  knew  they  could 
not  lead  after  baptism ;  so  there  is  a  way  of  postponing  holy 
Communion  which  the  Church  approves,  when  men  abstain  in 
order  to  give  time  for  bringing  forth  the  fruits  of  real  peni- 
tence, while  the  same  habit  is  repudiated  and  condemned  by 
the  Church  when  it  proceeds  from  coldness  and  insensibility 
lo wards  holy  things; — a  state  of  mind  so  perilous  that  the 
Church  exerts  her  utmost  energies  to  withstand  it,  since  it  tends 
directly  to  impiety  and  unbelief."  * 

This  brief  summary  may  serve  to  indicate  the  general  scope 
of  Arnauld's  book,  though  it  can  give  but  a  faint  notion  of  the 
ability  displayed  in  its  execution.  The  work  produced  an 
extraordinary  sensation  in  the  religious  world.f  The  Jesuits 
— although  neither  their  Society  as  a  whole,  nor  F.  Sesmaisons 


*  Ant.  Arnault!,  De  la  fre'quente  Com- 
munion, Preface,  §  vii. 

t  Various  answers  to  it  were  pub- 
lished, the  most  important  of  which 
were  by  the  Jesuits  Petau  and  Sir- 


mond;  that  of  the  former  biing  en- 
titled De  Poenitentid  PuUicd  et  Prie- 
paratione  ad  Communioitem,  and  of  the 
laitt-r,  Historia  Pceniientix  PMicze. 


A.D.  1644.        INTRIGUES  AGAINST  ANTOINE  ARNAULD.  395 

in  particular,  was  mentioned  by  name — assailed  it  with  a  rabid 
malignity  which  knew  no  bounds.  In  the  teeth  of  the  unde- 
niable evidence  of  Catholic  antiquity,  in  defiance  of  the  recorded 
judgment  of  the  most  distinguished  prelates  and  divines  of 
France,  the  indignant  fathers  of  the  College  de  Clermont  heaped 
•upon  Arnauld  and  his  book  every  species  of  scurrilous  abuse. 
One  of  them,  F.  Nouet,  launched  from  the  pulpit  of  their  prin- 
cipal church  at  Paris  a  series  of  outrageous  philippics,  in  which 
not  only  the  author  himself,  but  the  bishops  and  divines  who 
had  endorsed  his  doctrine,  were  held  up  to  public  reprobation. 
No  epithet  was  too  extravagant  for  the  occasion.  "  Falsifier  of 
the  Fathers,  ignorant,  fantastical,  fanatical,  mad,  blind,  serpent, 
scorpion,  monster,  wolf  in  sheep's  clothing,  labouring  to  ruin 
the  Church  after  the  pattern  of  Luther  and  Calvin,  under  pre- 
tence of  reforming  it ; "  such  are  a  few  choice  extracts  from 
the  vocabulary  of  this  foul-mouthed  orator.  The  bishops,  who 
were  assembled  at  one  of  their  occasional  meetings  in  the  capital, 
justly  resented  his  insolence.  Nouet  was  summoned  to  their 
presence,  sternly  reprimanded,  and  compelled  to  apologise  upon 
his  knees ;  added  to  which  a  formal  retractation  was  exacted 
from  him  of  the  offensive  language  of  his  sermons,  and  this 
document  was  printed  and  circulated  throughout  the  kingdom.* 
This  humiliation  did  not  deter  the  Jesuits  from  prosecuting 
their  schemes  of  vengeance  against  Arnauld.  They  attempted 
to  obtain  an  order  from  the  queen  for  his  incarceration  in  the 
Bastile  ;  but  without  success.  Mazarin  consented,  however,  to 
forward  their  views  by  other  means ;  and  Arnauld  received  a 
royal  command  to  repair  forthwith  to  Rome,  and  there  submit 
himself  and  his  book  to  the  judgment  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  t 
By  way  of  justifying  this  arbitrary  measure,  it  was  alleged  that 
the  agitation  which  prevailed  in  France  made  it  desirable  to 
have  the  affair  examined  at  a  distance  from  home;  and  that 
many  of  the  bishops,  having  already  expressed  their  approbation 
of  the  work,  were  disqualified  from  acting  in  the  capacity  of 
judges  in  the  cause.:}:  But  the  proceeding  was  manifestly  un- 
constitutional in  every  point  of  view.  If  Arnauld  had  com- 

*  See  his  '  Satisfaction,'  in  the  N.€-  \  The  Chancellor  Seguier  expressed 

moires  du  Clergtf,  torn.  i.  p.  580.  this  opinion  in  the  Eoyal  Council. 

t  Histoire  du  Port  R>yal,  torn.  v.  p.  See  the  Memoirs  of  Omer  Talon.  (Peti- 

373.  tot's  Collection.) 


396  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XL 

milted  an  ecclesiastical  offence,  his  proper  judges  were  the 
bishops  of  the  realm ;  if  a  civil  offence,  he  could  not  be  arraigned, 
as  a  French  subject,  before  any  but  a  French  tribunal.  Ener- 
getic remonstrances  were  made  by  the  University  of  Paris,  the 
Theological  Faculty,  the  Courts  of  Parliament,  and  the  prelates 
who  had  recommended  the  work ;  and  the  Kegent,  though  for 
a  time  she  seemed  disposed  to  enforce  her  illegal  mandate,  at 
last  found  it  prudent  to  give  way.*  Arnauld  thus  escaped  a 
snare  which  threatened  his  personal  safety;  for  it  seems  pro- 
bable that,  had  he  gone  to  Home,  he  would  have  been  consigned 
to  the  dungeons  of  the  Inquisition,  t  As  it  was,  he  thought  it 
advisable  to  conceal  himself;  and  accordingly  he  spent  no  less 
than  twenty  years  from  this  time  in  various  places  of  secure 
retreat,  known  only  to  a  few  confidential  friends.  He  did  not 
re-appear  in  public  till  after  the  "Peace  of  Clement  IX.,"  in 
1668. 

The  Jesuits,  conscious  that  if  the  principles  enunciated  by 
Arnauld  should  prevail,  their  own  credit  as  spiritual  guides 
must  needs  decline  proportionably,  strained  every  nerve  to  pro- 
cure a  sentence  of  condemnation  from  Home  upon  the  book  of 
'  Frequent  Communion.'  Two  of  their  Order,  Fathers  Brisacier 
and  Benoise,  were  commissioned  to  press  the  affair  at  the 
Papal  Court,  where  they  were  actively  supported  by  Cardinals 
Albizzi  and  Barberini, — the  former  Assessor  of  the  Inquisition, 
the  latter  the  Pope's  favourite  nephew.  The  friends  of  Arnauld, 
on  their  part,  defended  him  with  enthusiastic  zeal.  The  prelates 
who  had  recommended  his  work,  headed  by  the  Archbishop  of 
Sens,  wrote  a  letter  to  Pope  Urban  (April  5th,  1644),  in  which 
they  animadverted  on  the  insolent  behaviour  and  dangerous 
doctrines  of  the  Jesuits,  and  repelled  the  calumnies  which  had 
been  circulated  against  the  teaching  of  Arnauld.  "  We  cannot 
conceal  what  we  witness  and  experience  day  by  day,  that  certain 
persons  are  attempting  to  establish  among  us  maxims  preju- 
dicial to  the  whole  ecclesiastical  body,  and  especially  to  the 
episcopal  order ;  maxims  which  encourage  a  deplorable  misuse 
of  the  holy  Sacraments,  and  which,  instead  of  providing  means 
towards  correcting  and  purifying  the  depraved  morals  of  the 


*  Oracr  Talon,  M&moires,  torn.  i.  p.  279.    (Pctitot.) 
t  Memoires  de  Lancelot,  p.  272. 


A.D.  1644.     LETTER  OF  THE  BISHOPS  TO  URBAN  VIII. 


397 


age,  suggest  palliations  which  tend  to  justify  them,  as  every 
one  may  clearly  perceive  by  examining  their  publications. 

So  much  are  they  incensed  by  the  recent  exposure  of 

a  member  of  their  Order,  whose  views  have  been  refuted  by  evi- 
dence the  most  plain  and  convincing  drawn  from  the  writings 
of  the  Fathers,  that  they  are  employing  all  sorts  of  expedients 
for  destroying  the  authority  of  our  judgment  in  this  matter; 
they  decry  the  doctrine  upon  which  that  judgment  rests,  and 
strive  to  render  odious  the  author  who  has  thus  faithfully 
interpreted  the  ancient  tradition  of  the  Church."  The  bishops 
proceed  to  say  that  they  anticipate  important  benefits  from 
the  appearance  of  Arnauld's  work,  particularly  as  a  means  of 
counteracting  the  false  casuistry  of  certain  manuals  lately  put 
forth,  some  of  which  had  been  already  justly  censured  by  his 
Holiness.* 

Annexed  to  this  letter  was  a  declaration  by  Arnauld  himself, 
who  protested  that,  as  in  composing  the  treatise  in  question 
he  had  been  actuated  solely  by  the  love  of  truth  and  zeal  for 
the  salvation  of  souls,  so  he  wished  to  submit  it  in  all  sincerity 
to  the  judgment  of  the  Koman  Church ;  of  the  Pope,  whom  he 
revered  as  the  sovereign  Vicar  of  Christ  upon  earth ;  of  the 
Archbishop  of  Paris,  to  whom  he  was  prepared  to  pay,  at  all 
times  and  in  all  things,  the  obedience  which  he  had  promised 
by  his  ordination  vow  ;  and  of  the  Faculty  of  Theology,  whom 
he  honoured  as  his  mother,  and  for  whom  he  should  preserve 
through  life  a  profound  and  ardent  affection.  "  And  as  I  hope," 
he  contiuues,  "that  by  the  grace  of  God,  neither  the  desire 
of  temporal  gain  nor  the  fear  of  temporal  calamity  will  ever 
hinder  me  from  defending  the  truth,  so  no  stubborn  attachment 
to  my  own  opinions  will  ever  cause  me  to  forget  in  the  least- 
degree  the  entire  submission  which  I  owe  and  will  always 
render  to  the  Church,  whose  authority  I  acknowledge  as  that  of 
Jesus  Christ  himself,  and  which  is  one  and  indefectible  in  the 
succession  of  its  pastors  and  its  Councils,  from  the  first  century 
down  to  the  present,  and  from  this  day  to  the  end  of  the 
world."  f 

After  the  death  of  Urban  VIII.,  the  same  prelates  addressed 


*  Alluding  to  the  Somme  des  Ptfchfs 
of  the  Jesuit  Bauny,  which  Lad  been 
condemned  by  the  Inquisition  in  1640. 


It  is  satirized  by  Pascal  in  the  4th  of 
the  '  Provincial  Letters.' 

t  (Euvres  d'Aniauld,  torn,  xxviii. 


398  THE  GALLICAN  CHUBCH.  CHAP.  XL 

themselves  in  similar  terms  to  his  successor  Innocent  X.  They 
also  accredited  a  doctor  of  the  Sorbonne  named  Bourgeois, 
one  of  the  twenty-four  who  had  sanctioned  Arnauld's  book,  as 
their  agent  in  the  affair  at  the  Papal  Court.  Bourgeois  reached 
Eome  in  April,  1645,  and  displayed  remarkable  acuteness  in 
the  discharge  of  his  mission.  After  protracted  delays,  he  was 
at  last  informed  that  the  Inquisitors  had  unanimously  deter- 
mined that  there  was  nothing  worthy  of  censure  in  the  doctrine 
set  forth  by  Arnauld ;  and  the  Pope  assured  him,  in  a  private 
audience,  that  no  event  since  his  accession  had  given  him  so 
much  joy  as  the  favourable  report  made  to  him  in  this  case  by 
the  Congregation  of  the  Holy  Office.  He  charged  Bourgeois 
to  inform  the  French  prelates,  and  likewise  Arnauld,  of  the 
interest  he  had  taken  in  the  affair,  and  of  his  satisfaction  at  its 
happy  termination.* 

By  way  of  compensation  to  the  Jesuits  for  this  mortifying 
defeat,  the  Inquisition  condemned  an  incidental  expression  in 
the  Preface  to  the  treatise  on  '  Frequent  Communion,'  to  the 
effect  that  "  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  are  two  heads  of  the  Church 
who  are  virtually  one."  f  The  phrase  had  been  inserted,  need- 
lessly and  injudiciously,  by  De  Barcos,  nephew  of  the  Abbe  de 
St.  Cyran,  a  meddlesome  person  of  inferior  stamp.j  It  was 
held  to  be  injurious  to  the  Eoman  See,  which  founds  its 
claim  to  primacy  and  universal  authority  on  its  succession  from 
St.  Peter  alone ;  and  some  reference  was  apprehended  to  the 
project  attributed  at  one  time  to  Eichelieu,  of  setting  up  in 
France  a  national  patriarchate,  with  independent  rights  derived 
from  St.  Paul.  Such,  at  least,  was  the  ostensible  ground  for 
taking  notice  of  the  passage;  but  it  was  probably  a  mere 
pretext.  The  Pope's  decree,  denouncing  as  heretical  the  notion 
of  equal  or  co-ordinate  authority  between  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul, 
as  joint  heads  of  the  Church,  appeared  in  January,  1647;  it 
was  worded,  however,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  be,  in  the  opinion 
of  the  Jansenists,  inapplicable  to  the  statement  in  Arnauld's 
book.§  The  Nuncio  in  France  ordered  it  to  be  printed  without 


*  See  the  Relation  du  Dodeur  Sour-  \  ii.  Liv.  xi. 

geois.     (Eumes  d' Arnauld,  torn,  xxviii.  !       §  The  obnoxious  paragraph  ran  as 

Appendix.  j  follows.      The  author  is  speaking  of 

t  January  24,  1647.  !  St.   Peter's  repentance  after  his   fall. 

j  D'Avrigny,  M&m.  ChronoJog.,  torn,  j  "  L'humilite  de  ce  grand  Apotre  a  e'te 

ii.  p.  189.    Histoire  de  Port  Royal,  Pt.  depuis    imite'e    par   S.   Paul,   qui    est 


A.D.  1647. 


PROSELYTES  TO  JANSENISM. 


399 


waiting  for  the  usual  formalities ;  upon  which  it  was  immedi- 
ately attacked  as  illegal.  On  the  27th  the  Parliament  issued 
an  arret  forbidding  its  publication  or  execution.  These  curious 
proceedings  weie  at  length  thus  brought  to  a  close. 

The  triumphant  acquittal  of  Arnauld  of  course  reflected  new 
lustre  on  the  Jansenist  community.  Its  effect  was  seen  ere 
long  in  the  augmented  number  of  the  inmates  of  Port  Royal  des 
Champs.  Many  notable  conversions  took  place  at  this  period 
among  persons  of  different  professions  and  various  classes  of 
society,  prompted  by  a  common  impulse  to  renounce  the  world 
and  devote  themselves  to  God's  service  in  that  ascetic  retreat : 
— "  like  so  many  mariners,"  says  one  of  the  historians,  *  "  who, 
having  suffered  the  calamities  of  shipwreck,  find  shelter  in  the 
friendly  haven  whither  the  all-powerful  and  merciful  hand  of 
God  conducts  them."  "  God  himself,"  says  another  writer,! 
"  was  the  pillar  that  led  them  into  this  wilderness ;  the  way 
by  which  they  came  thither;  the  guide  who  brought  them 
there  in  safety ;  the  hand  which  supported  them  there ;  the 
almighty  arm  which  sustained  them  there  with  celestial  manna. 
In  that  desert  might  be  seen  men  of  lofty  birth  clad  in  the 
garments  of  poverty  and  employed  in  the  most  fatiguing  labours, 
with  nothing  to  distinguish  them  from  those  placed  by  nature 
in  that  condition,  except  the  noble  mien  which  betrayed  them, 
and  the  devout  silence  with  which  they  applied  themselves  to 
their  tasks.  These  saintly  husbandmen  had  trodden  under 
foot  all  earthly  considerations.  They  could  reply  to  those  who 
charged  them  with  fanaticism  in  the  words  used  on  a  similar 
occasion  by  St.  Paulinus  :  "  It  is  not  this  garden,  but  Paradise, 
that  I  prefer  to  the  world  I  have  abandoned." 

Proselytes  were  made  by  the  Jansenists  about  this  time  from 
some  of  the  most  illustrious  families  of  France :  those,  for  instance, 


I'autre  ceuil  de  la  tete  de  Jesus  Christ, 
comme  dit  un  Pere ;  qui  se  retira  peu 
de  temps  apres  son  bapteme  dans  les 
deserts  de  1  Arable  pour  y  pleurer  son 
pe'che  dans  la  separation  de  toute 
1'Eglise.  De  sorte  quo  Ton  voit  dans 
les  deux  chefs  de  1'Eglise,  qui  u'en 
font  qu'un,  le  modele  de  la  penitence." 
The  clause  of  the  Papal  decree,  limiting 
the  application  of  the  censure,  was 


this  : — "  Propositionem  hanc,  ita  expli- 
catam  ut  ponat  onmimodam  sequalita- 
tem  inter  sanctos  Petrum  et  Paulum, 
sine  subordinatione  S.  Pauli  ad  S. 
Petrum  in  potestate  suprema  et  regi- 
mine  Universalis  Ecclesise,  hsDreticam 
censuit  et  declaravit." 

*  Clemencet,  Hist,  de  Port  Royal, 
torn.  ii. 

t  Thomas  du  Fosse,  Mfmoires. 


400  THE  GALLI CAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XT. 

of  the  Due  de  Liancour,  the  Due  de  Roannez,  the  Prince  de 
Gueiuene,  the  Due  de  Luynes,  and  the  Marquis  de  Sable. 

Meanwhile  the  flames  of  intestine  discord  were  once  more 
kindled  throughout  the  kingdom.  Mazariu,  by  a  series  of  irri- 
tating and  vexatious  measures,  had  made  himself  odious  to  the 
nation.  The  Queen-Regent  supported  him  with  blind  parti- 
ality. The  nobles,  in  their  disgust,  made  common  cause  with 
the  refractory  Parliament,  and  every  day  added  to  the  bitter- 
ness of  an  animosity  which  was  shortly  to  burst  forth  into  open 
violence.  In  this  singular  contest,  known  in  history  as  the  War 
of  the  Fronde,  the  leaders  on  both  sides  were  ecclesiastics. 
Mazarin  dictated  the  councils  of  the  Crown ;  while  at  the  head 
of  the  opposition  was  the  turbulent  De  Retz,  nephew  and  co- 
adjutor to  the  Archbishop  of  Paris.  Between  these  two  digni- 
taries there  was  a  deep  personal  enmity.  De  Retz  had  on 
many  occasions  thwarted  and  humbled  the  parvenu  minister ; 
and  the  latter  was  keenly  jealous  of  the  influence  enjoyed  by 
the  coadjutor  with  the  parochial  clergy  both  in  Paris  and  in  the 
provinces,  who  were  thus  encouraged  in  a  spirit  of  disaffection 
to  the  Government. 

The  religious  disputes  of  the  day  kept  pace  with  the  political, 
and  were  in  great  measure  complicated  with  them.  De  Retz 
was  on  familiar  terms  with  Antoine  Arnauld,  and  showed  himself 
an  indulgent  patron  of  Port  Royal.  In  his  administration  of 
the  diocese  (for  his  uncle  was  incapacitated  by  age)  he  favoured 
the  clergy  of  the  Jansenist  school ;  and  they,  in  return,  were 
not  ashamed,  notwithstanding  the  prelate's  scandalous  irregu- 
larities, to  applaud  his  policy  and  enlist  under  his  banners.* 
Hence  they  gained  the  reputation,  which  however  was  scarcely 
justified  by  the  facts,  of  being  implicated  in  all  the  factious 
intrigues  and  rebellious  enterprises  of  the  Fronde,  f  The  Jesuits, 
on  the  other  hand,  were  firm  adherents  of  the  Court  and  the 
Cardinal-minister;  and  thus  found  themselves  arrayed  against 
the  Jansenists  in  civil  partisanship,  as  well  as  in  theological 
controversv. 


*  "  They  forgave  his  depraved 
morals,"  says  Foutaine,  "  in  considera- 
tion of  hid  many  excellent  qualities, 
and  his  great  anxiety  to  have  persons 
of  merit  for  his  friends."  Memoires  de 


Fontaine,  torn.  ii. 

t  The  Due  de  Luynes  and  the  Che- 
valier de  Sevigne,  two  of  the  military 
leaders  of  the  Fronde,  were  among  the 
most  devoted  friends  of  Port  Eoyal. 


A  D.  1649.      RIVALRY  OF  JANSENISTS  AND  MOLINISTS.  401 

The  strife  arising  from  the  '  Augustinus '  now  commenced 
in  earnest.  Kival  Jansenists  and  Molinists  attacked  each  other 
from  the  pulpit ;  a  stream  of  vehement  pamphlets  was  poured 
forth  on  both  sides  from  the  press ;  and  it  was  clear  that  the 
conflict  was  destined  to  engage  all  the  energies  and  resources  of 
the  keenest  intellects  of  the  time.  The  mysteries  of  predesti- 
nation and  free-will  seemed  to  have  acquired  an  almost  magical 
attraction;  the  younger  students  in  divinity,  yielding  to  the 
irresistible  impulse  of  party-spirit,  gave  themselves  up  to  the  in- 
vestigation of  these  vexed  questions  in  preference  to  all  others. 

On  the  1st  of  July,  1649,  Nicholas  Cornet,  at  that  time 
Syndic  of  the  Faculty  of  Theology  at  Paris,  addressed  a  crowded 
assemblage  of  doctors  in  the  great  hall  of  the  Sorbonne.  He 
said  that  he  had  been  induced,  out  of  anxiety  to  preserve  peace 
in  the  Faculty,  to  sign  several  theses  *  in  which  it  was  evi- 
dently sought  to  promulgate  the  new  opinions.  He  had  hoped 
that  such  attempts  might  be  suppressed  by  lenity ;  and  had 
therefore  contented  himself  with  adding  to  such  theses  what 
he  judged  necessary  to  protect  the  truth  from  injury,  and  the 
decrees  of  the  Sorbonne  from  being  violated.  He  found,  however, 
that  his  forbearance  was  abused,  and  his  silence  construed  as  an 
approval  of  these  heterodox  notions.  He  therefore  felt  bound 
in  duty  to  bring  the  matter  before  the  doctors  as  a  body,  that 
they  might  adopt  such  steps  as  the  circumstances  seemed  to 
demand.  One  of  the  bachelors,  whose  thesis  he  had  lately  had 
occasion  to  correct,  had  totally  ignored  the  alterations  made  in 
it,  and  maintained,  in  his  public  act,  the  terms  in  which  it  was 
originally  drawn.  He  had  also  caused  it  to  be  printed  in  a  shape 
differing  from  that  which  he  (the  Syndic)  approved.  Such  in- 
subordination was  not  to  be  endured.  Respect  for  authority 
must  be  enforced;  and  to  this  end  he  suggested  that  the 
Sorbonne  should  record  its  judgment  upon  certain  propositions 
which  he  had  drawn  up,  after  mature  consideration,  as  ex- 
pressing the  sum  and  substance  of  the  views  in  question.  He 
proceeded  to  specify  seven,  which  were  afterwards  reduced  to 
five,  as  follows.! 


*  Public  exercises  on  various  sub- 
jects of  philosophy,  theology,  canon  law, 
or  arts,  sustained  by  candidates  for  de- 
grees in  the  Universities. 

VOL.  I. 


f  They  stood  thus  in  the  original 
Latin : — 

1.  "Aliqua  Dei  prseccpta  hominibus 
justis  volentibus  et  conantibus,  secun- 

2   D 


402 


THE  GALL1CAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  XL 


1.  "  Certain  commandments  of  God  are  impossible  to  just 
persons  even  desiring  and  endeavouring  to  keep  them,  according 
to  the  strength  which  they  then  possess ;  and  such  grace  is 
Jacking  to  them  as  would  render  them  possible." 

2.  "  In  the  state  of  fallen   nature  internal  grace  is  never 
resisted." 

3.  "  In  order  to  merit  and  demerit  in  the  state  of  fallen 
nature,  freedom  from  necessity  is  not  required  of  man,  but  it 
suffices  that  there  be  freedom  from  constraint." 

4.  "  The  Semi-Pelagians  admitted  the  necessity  of  internal 
prevenient  grace  for  each  separate  act,  and  even  for  the  begin- 
ning of  faith;  their  heresy  consisted  in  this,  that  they  con- 
sidered that  grace  to  be  such  as  the  will  of  man  might  either 
resist  or  obey." 

5.  "  It  is  a  Semi-Pelagian  error  to  say  that  Christ  died  or 
shed  His  blood  for  all  men  absolutely." 

A  sharp  discussion  ensued  upon  the  question  whether  these 
propositions  should  be  submitted  to  an  official  examination.  It 
was  decided  at  length  in  the  affirmative  by  a  plurality  of  voices ; 
and  a  Committee  was  appointed  to  consider  and  report  upon 
them,  the  members  of  which,  with  only  two  exceptions,  were 
known  to  be  hostile  to  Jansenius.  * 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  Syndic  neither  named  any 
author,  nor  specified  any  work  from  which  the  propositions  were 
extracted.  Indeed  when  one  of  the  doctors  remarked  that  the 
intention  was  evidently  to  condemn  Jansenius,  Cornet  replied 
with  warmth,  "Non  agitur  de  Jansenio."  Yet  we  know  that  in 
the  sequel  these  very  propositions  were  continually  referred  to 
as  containing  the  pith  and  marrow  of  the  Jansenist  heresy,  and 
that  they  were  anathematized  as  such  by  the  Apostolic  See. 

The  Jansenists  took  the  alarm  at  once,  and  put  forth  several 


diim  prsepentes  quas  habent  vires,  sunt 
impossibilia ;  deest  quoque  iis  gratia 
qua  possibilia  fiant." 

2.  "  Interior!  gratise  in  statu  naturse 
lapsse  nunquam  resLstitur." 

3.  "  Ad  merendum  et  demerendum 
in  statu  naturae  lapsse  non  requiritur  in 
homuie  libertas  ii  necessitate,  sed  suf- 
ficit  libertas  a  coactione." 

4.  "  Semi-Pelagiam  admittebant  prse- 
venitntis  <jratipc  interioiis  necessitate™ 


ad  singulos  actus,  etiam  ad  initium 
fidei ;  et  in  hoc  erant  hseretici,  quod 
vellent  earn  gratiam  talem  esse  cni 
posset  human  a  voluntas  resistere  vel 
obteraperare." 

5.  "  Semi-Pelagianorum  error  est 
dicere  Christum  pro  omnibus  omnino 
hominibus  mortuum  esse  aut  sanguiuem 
fudis*e." 

*  Journal  de  Saint  Amour,  Part  i. 
chap.  6. 


A.D.  1649.  THE  FIVE  PROPOSITIONS.  403 

pamphlets  in  which  the  tactics  of  their  opponents  were  un- 
sparingly criticised.  The  most  forcible  of  these,  entitled  '  Con- 
siderations sur  1'enterprise  de  Maitre  Nicolas  Cornet,  Syndic  de 
la  Faculte,'  was  by  Antoine  Arnauld;*  who  maintained  that 
the  propositions  were  mere  fabrications,  and  that  such  opinions 
had  never  in  fact  been  held  or  taught  by  any  one.  They  were 
drawn  up,  he  declared,  in  language  so  ambiguous,  that  they 
might  be  interpreted  at  pleasure  either  in  a  heretical  or  in  an 
orthodox  sense.  Moreover,  the  Syndic  and  his  friends  had 
violated  the  rules  of  the  Sor bonne  by  denouncing  the  proposi- 
tions without  mentioning  the  name  of  the  author,  or  the  works 
from  which  they  were  quoted.  It  was  manifest,  he  contended, 
that  their  object  was  to  cast  discredit  on  the  teaching  of  St. 
Augustine ;  several  of  them  having  already  expressed  their 
dissent  in  many  particulars  from  that  Father's  views. 

Meanwhile  a  strong  minority  of  the  doctors,  headed  by 
Louis  de  St.  Amour,  signed  an  "  appel  comme  d'abus  "  to  the 
Parliament  against  the  proceedings  of  the  Theological  -Faculty. 
They  entrusted  it  for  presentation  to  Broussel,  a  highly  popular 
magistrate,  the  same  whose  arrest,  in  August,  1648,  had  given 
the  signal  for  the  outbreak  against  Mazarin  and  the  Govern- 
ment.! Thus  early  commenced  the  alliance,  intelligible  and 
natural  under  the  circumstances,  between  the  Jansenists  and 
the  party  of  political  disaffection. 

The  appeal  was  duly  admitted,  but  on  the  suggestion  of  the 
First  President,  Mathieu  Mole,  it  was  arranged  that  no  further 
action  should  be  taken  for  three  or  four  months  ensuing ;  in  the 
hope  that  during  that  interval  an  accommodation  might  be 
agreed  to,  and  peace  restored.  The  truce,  however,  was  ill 
observed  by  the  Molinists.  About  the  middle  of  September  a 
document  was  circulated  in  Paris  purporting  to  be  a  censure 
passed  by  the  Committee  of  Doctors  on  the  five  Propositions, 
and  signed  by  eight  out  of  the  ten  members  who  composed  it.J 
Upon  this  St.  Amour  and  his  supporters  again  appealed  to  the 
law  courts.  The  parties  were  summoned  before  the  "  chambre 
des  vacations  "  on  the  5th  of  October,  and  Cornet  and  his  friends 


*  (Em-res  d'Arnauld,  torn.  xix.  4to.   \       J  This  paper  is   given    at    length, 
1778.  under  the  title  of  '  Propositiones  Bac- 


t  D  Avrigny,  Mtfm.  Chronolorj.,  torn, 
ii.  p.  197. 


calaureorum,'  by   Gerberon,   Hnt.    du 
Jansenisme,  torn.  i.  p.  312. 

2  n  2 


404  THE  GALLIC  AN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XI. 

protested  that  the  circular  complained  of  had  been  published 
without  their  knowledge  or  consent.  The  presiding  judge  now 
made  another  attempt  to  effect  a  reconciliation ;  but  finding  it 
im practicable,  he  ordered  the  appeal  to  be  heard  at  the  first 
sitting  of  the  Courts  in  November,  and  meanwhile  forbade  the 
parties  to  publish  anything  whatever  on  the  subject,  or  agitate 
the  question  directly  or  indirectly. 

The  opponents  of  Jansenius  now  changed  their  plan  of 
operations.  From  the  temper  manifested  by  the  Parliament, 
the  threatening  aspect  of  public  affairs,  and  the  wide-spread 
prejudice  against  the  Jesuits,  there  was  reason  to  apprehend 
that  the  attempt  to  obtain  a  censure  of  the  propositions  from 
the  Sorboime  would  have  been  defeated.  They  therefore 
abandoned  that  project ;  contenting  themselves  with  reminding 
the  Faculty  that  it  had  already  passed  decrees  upon  the  subject, 
and  that  nothing  more  was  needed  than  that  the  Syndic  should 
enforce  their  execution.  The  surreptitious  form  of  censure, 
however;  which  Cornet  and  his  colleagues  had  disavowed  before 
the  magistrates,  was  transmitted  to  Home,  where  it  was  dealt 
with  as  if  it  had  been  a  genuine  act  of  the  Sorbonne.  Commis- 
sioners were  named  to  examine  it,  and  it  seems  that  their 
report  would  have  confirmed  it,  but  for  the  opposition  of  one  of 
them,  the  Cardinal  de  St.  Clement,  a  Dominican.*  The  anti- 
pathy of  the  Dominicans  to  the  Jesuits  had  been  much  inten- 
sified since  the  appearance  of  the  famous  work  of  Molina,  which 
they  regarded  as  an  audacious  attack  upon  the  authority  of  St. 
Augustine  and  the  doctrine  of  efficacious  grace.  The  Pope 
accordingly  abstained  from  giving  a  decision. 

In  the  next  stage  of  the  contest  the  initiative  was  taken  by 
the  prelates  of  France ; — a  large  body  of  whom  appealed  to  the 
Pope  for  the  purpose  of  prevailing  on  his  Holiness  to  deliver  an 
authoritative  judgment  on  the  merits  of  the  Five  Propositions. 
Their  joint  letter  was  drawn  up  by  Habert  Bishop  of  Vabres 
(the  same  who  in  1643  had  denounced  the  '  Augustinus '  from 
the  pulpit  of  Notre  Dame),  and  is  said  to  have  been  cordially 
approved  by  Vincent  de  Paul.f  The  document,  which  bore 

*  Gerberon,  Hist,  dit  Jansenisme,  ]  sequence  he  is  bitterly  reviled  by  the 

torn.  i.  p.  330.  ;  Jansenist  historian  Gerberon.  "  Fron- 

t  Vincent  de  Paul  exerted  himself  j  deur  aussi  ignorant  que  zele' " — "  de- 

zealously  in  persuading  the  bishops  to  vot  ignorant " — "  demi  Pelagien  " — are 

affix  their  names  to  t  :e  Liter.  In  con-  among  the  epithets  bestowed  on  him. 


A.D.  1649.  THE  BISHOPS  APPEAL  TO  THE  POPE.  405 

the  signature  of  eighty-five  bishops,  possesses  so  much  historic 
interest,  that  a  translation  of  it  is  here  presented  to  the  reader. 

"  It  is  an  established  usage  of  the  Church,  most  holy  Father, 
that  the  greater  causes  shall  be  referred  to  the  Apostolic  See ; 
and  the  faith  of  Peter,  which  can  never  fail,  demands  that  this 
usage  be  for  ever  continued  as  a  matter  of  right.  In  obedience 
to  so  just  a  law,  we  deem  it  necessary  to  address  your  Holiness 
upon  an  affair  of  the  gravest  importance  to  religion.  For  ten 
years  past  we  have  seen  with  much  grief  France  agitated  by 
violent  contentions  on  account  of  the  posthumous  work  of  the 
reverend  Cornelius  Jansenius,  Bishop  of  Ypres,  and  the  doctrine 
therein  contained.  These  commotions  ought  indeed  to  have 
been  suppressed  as  well  by  the  authority  of  the  Council  of 
Trent  as  by  that  of  the  bull  of  Urban  VIII.,  of  happy  memory, 
by  which  that  Pontiff  condemned  the  dogmas  of  Jansenius,  and 
confirmed  the  decrees  of  Pius  V.  and  Gregory  XIII.  against 
Baius.  Your  Holiness  has  established,  by  a  fresh  decree,  the 
truth  and  the  force  of  the  bull ;  but  because  each  individual 
proposition  was  not  branded  by  a  special  censure,  it  has  appeared 
to  certain  persons  that  room  was  still  left  for  subterfuge  and 
evasion.  Such  resources  will,  we  believe,  be  altogether  cut  off, 
if  it  shall  please  your  Holiness,  according  to  this  our  petition, 
to  pronounce  clearly  and  definitely  what  sentiments  are  to  be 
held  upon  this  subject.  With  this  view,  we  implore  your  Holi- 
ness to  undertake  the  examination  of  the  following  propositions, 
the  discussion  of  which  is  the  chief  source  of  the  alarming 
excitement  now  prevailing,  and  to  deliver  a  distinct  judgment 
upon  each  of  them." 

Here  follow  the  Five  Propositions,  the  text  of  which  has  been 
already  given.  The  bishops  continue : — "  Your  Holiness  has 
had  recent  proof  of  the  efficacy  which-  attends  the  authoritative 
decisions  of  the  Apostolic  See,  in  the  overthrow  of  the  error  of 
the  double  head  of  the  Church.  The  storm  ceased  immediately ; 
the  winds  and  waves  submitted  to  the  voice  and  command  of 
Jesus  Christ.  For  which  reason  we  entreat  you,  most  holy 
Father,  to  publish  a  decisive  judgment  on  the  aforesaid  pro- 
positions ; — a  judgment  to  which  the  reverend  Jansenius  him- 
self, when  at  the  point  of  death,  expressly  submitted  his  work ; 
and  by  this  means  to  dispel  all  obscurity,  to  re-assure  wavering 
minds,  to  avert  divisions,  and  to  restore  to  the  Church  her  peace 


400  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XI. 

and  her  prosperity.  While  cherishing  this  anticipation,  we 
address  our  desires  and  prayers  to  God,  that  the  immortal  King 
may  bless  your  Holiness  with  long  and  happy  years,  and  in  the 
end  with  a  glorious  eternity."  * 

Exception  was  taken  to  this  proceeding  by  a  portion  of  the 
French  clergy,  first,  on  the  ground  that  the  signatures  had  been 
obtained  by  underhand  and  unfair  means;  and  secondly,  as 
interfering  with  the  right  of  the  episcopate  to  take  cognizance, 
in  the  first  instance,  of  the  greater  ecclesiastical  causes,  pre- 
viously to  any  application  to  Rome.  The  Archbishop  of  Embrun, 
with  some  of  his  brethren,  waited  on  the  Nuncio  to  inform  him 
that  they  disapproved  the  step,  and  that  it  must  not  be  con- 
sidered the  collective  act  of  the  clergy  of  France.  They  like- 
wise presented  a  counter-address  to  the  Pope,  setting  forth  at 
considerable  length  their  view  of  the  affair.  The  Five  Proposi- 
tions, they  observed,  being  ambiguously  worded,  could  not  but 
engender  disputes  full  of  animosity,  from  the  conflicting  inter- 
pretations which  must  inevitably  be  applied  to  them.  There 
were,  moreover,  other  reasons  for  thinking  that  the  present  was 
not  a  favourable  moment  for  determining  the  questions  of  grace 
and  predestination — beset  as  they  were  with  difficulties,  and 
never  agitated  without  violent  contests.  In  such  a  case  the 
order  of  the  Church  Universal,  combined  with  the  customs 
received  in  the  National  Church  of  France,  ought  to  be  scrupu- 
lously observed ;  and  to  this  end  the  case  ought  to  be  brought 
in  the  first  instance  before  the  council  of  bishops,  according  to 
various  precedents,  which  they  cited,  both  ancient  and  modern. 
Had  this  course  been  taken,  it  would  have  been  the  duty  of 
the  bishops  to  examine  whether  the  propositions  had  not  been 
fabricated  in  order  to  stigmatize  certain  individuals,  and  excite 
commotion;  to  ascertain  in  what  place,  by  what  writers,  and 
in  what  sense,  they  had  been  advanced ;  to  distinguish  their  real 
meaning  from  the  false;  to  inquire  closely  into  all  that  had 
passed  upon  the  subject  since  the  dispute  commenced ;  to  give 
a  full  and  impartial  hearing  to  all  parties  in  the  case ;  and  after 
all  this,  to  make  known  to  his  Holiness  the  result  of  their 
investigation.  Whereas  the  measure  adopted  by  their  colleagues 
left  an  opening  for  artifice,  for  calumny,  for  misrepresentation, 


*  Mc'iitoires  <ln  Clerg&de  France,  torn.  i.  p.  223, 


A.D.  1651.       THE  PEOPOS1TIONS  EXAMINED  AT  ROME.  407 

for  deception,  which  might  lead  to  consequences  deeply  pre- 
judicial to  the  cause  of  truth.  They  therefore  implored  the 
holy  Father  either  to  permit  this  grave  controversy,  which  had 
already  lasted  several  centuries  without  impairing  Catholic 
unity,  to  remain  still  longer  undecided,  or  to  determine  the 
questions  submitted  to  him  in  accordance  with  the  prescriptive 
rules  of  ecclesiastical  discipline.  This  letter  was  signed  by  the 
Archbishop  of  Sens  (Louis  Henri  de  Gondrin),  and  by  the  Bishops 
of  Orleans,  Chalons,  Lescar,  Agen,  Comminges,  Amiens,  Angers, 
Beauvais,  and  St.  Papoul.* 

The  request  of  the  eighty-five  prelates  could  hardly  be  disre- 
garded by  the  Pope ;  who  accordingly  appointed  a  commission 
of  six  cardinals  to  proceed  to  the  examination  of  the  proposi- 
tions. The  commissioners  met  for  the  first  time  on  the  20th  of 
April,  1651,  under  the  presidency  of  Cardinal  Eoma,  Dean 
of  the  Sacred  College ;  but  their  sittings  were  not  held  regu- 
larly till  the  spring  of  the  year  following.  Each  party  in  the 
cause  deputed  certain  divines  as  its  agents  and  advocates  at 
the  Papal  Court  on  this  occasion.  These  were,  on  the  side  of  the 
eighty-five  prelates,  whom  we  may  call  the  appellants,  MM. 
Hallier  (who  had  recently  succeeded  Cornet  as  Syndic  of  the 
Sorbonne),  Legault,  and  Joysel ;  on  the  opposite  side,  Gorin  de 
Saint  Amour  (who  has  left  a  very  interesting  chronicle  of  the 
events  of  his  mission  f).  La  Lanne,  Abbot  of  Valcroissant,  and 
afterwards  the  celebrated  Father  Desmares  of  the  Oratory. 

A  discussion  arose  at  the  outset  as  to  the  method  in  which 
the  inquiry  should  be  conducted.  The  Jansenists  desired  to 
have  the  matter  at  issue  argued  by  public  disputation  between 
themselves  and  their  opponents,  as  the  best  means  of  ascer- 
taining what  was  really  maintained  on  each  side,  and  fixing  the 
precise  sense  of  the  propositions,  which  they  affirmed  to  be 
equivocal.  This  demand  was  resisted  by  the  Jesuits ;  and  they 
succeeded  in  inducing  the  Pope  and  Cardinals  to  adopt  the  course 
which  they  preferred.  The  respondents,  indeed,  had  an  exceed- 
ingly difficult  part  to  play.  The  Pope  received  them  graciously, 
and  assured  them  that  whatever  might  be  the  final  decision,  it 


on  the  Index  by  the  authorities  of  the 
Inquisition,  and  the   French  Govern- 
ment ordered  it  to  be  publicly  burnt  by 
t  St.  Amour's  '  Journal '  was  placed    I   the  hangman. 


*  Journal   de   St.   Amour,   Part    iii. 
chap.  1.    D'Avrigny,  M^moires,  torn.  ii. 


408  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XT. 

would  by  no  means  militate  against  the  teaching  either  of 
St.  Augustine  or  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  as  to  the  efficaciousness 
of  grace.  Nevertheless,  it  was  plain  that  the  curia  was 
strongly  prejudiced  against  them.  They  strove  to  organize 
a  friendly  party  among  the  religious  Orders,  especially  the 
Augustinians  and  Dominicans;  urging  that  a  conspiracy  had 
been  formed  to  subvert  the  vital  doctrine  of  efficacious  grace, 
and  that  all  who  were  anxious  to  preserve  it  ought  to  join  heart 
and  hand  forthwith  with  the  defenders  of  Jansenius.  To  some 
extent  this  attempt  was  successful;  several  Dominicans  sup- 
ported the  Jansenist  cause  in  the  meetings  of  the  Congregation, 
and  pronounced  in  favour  of  the  Propositions  when  the  suffrages 
were  collected.  Others,  however,  having  been  re-assured  upon 
the  point  which  had  caused  alarm,  voted  for  a  condemnation.  A 
complaint  was  raised,  again,  and  with  some  reason,  against  the 
composition  of  the  commission.  It  consisted,  as  finally  arranged, 
of  five  cardinals  and  thirteen  "  consulters  "  or  assessors,  chosen 
from  the  most  eminent  theologians  of  the  monastic  orders. 
Two  of  these,  Modeste,  a  Franciscan,  and  Pallavicini,  a  Jesuit, 
had  declared  themselves  decidedly  opposed  to  the  '  Augustinus.' 
The  Jansenist  deputies  objected  in  consequence  to  their  sitting 
on  the  commission,  and  also  to  the  presence  of  Cardinal  Albizzi, 
who  acted  as  secretary;  but  their  appeal  was  disregarded. 
Other  vexatious  obstacles  were  thrown  in  their  way ;  but  the 
chief  grievance  was  the  determined  refusal  to  confront  them 
publicly  with  their  antagonists,  for  the  purpose  of  elucidating 
those  terms  and  phrases  in  the  controversy  which  (according  to 
the  Jansenists)  were  of  dubious  import. 

The  judicial  investigation  was  conducted  with  laudable  zeal 
and  energy.  Twenty  sessions  were  held  between  the  1st  of 
October,  1652,  and  the  20th  of  January,  1653 ;  five  of  which 
were  devoted  to  the  consideration  of  the  first  Proposition,  four 
to  the  second,  four  to  the  third,  three  to  the  fourth,  and  four  to 
the  fifth.  The  meetings  took  place  latterly,  by  the  Pope's 
express  desire,  in  his  own  presence.  His  Holiness,  notwith- 
standing his  great  age,  attended  ten  sittings,  each  of  four  hours' 
duration,  and  spared  no  pains  to  make  himself  master  of  the 
intricate  technicalities  of  the  question  in  debate. 

On  the  19th  of  May,  1653,  the  Jansenist  deputies  were 
received  in  solemn  audience  by  Pope  Innocent  and  the  whole 


A.D.  1653. 


DISCUSSION  ON  THE  PROPOSITIONS. 


409 


Congregation.  La  Lanne  and  Desraares  harangued  them  for 
several  hours;  the  latter  exhibiting  on  the  occasion  all  the 
qualities  of  a  consummate  orator.  They  founded  their  argument 
specially  on  a  document  which  became  known  as  the  *  Ecrit  a 
trois  colonnes;'*  in  which  they  had  drawn  up  side  by  side  three 
different  interpretations  of  the  Five  Propositions.  The  first 
column  contained  the  Calvinist  sense,  which  all  Catholics 
agreed  in  repudiating ;  the  second  gave  the  view  which  the 
Jansenists  maintained  to  be  the  legitimate,  orthodox,  and  true 
one  ;  the  third  exhibited  the  so-called  Molinist  or  Semi-Pelagian 
version,  which  was  attributed  to  the  Jesuits.  By  dint  of  much 
ingenious  extenuation,  many  fine-drawn  distinctions,  and  no 
small  distortion  of  the  plain  meaning  of  words,  the  advocates 
of  Jansenius  modified  the  harshness  of  the  text  of  the  Proposi- 
tions, and  showed  that  they  might  be  so  construed  as  to  exclude 
the  necessitarian  theory.  But  they  made  no  real  impression 
upon  the  minds  of  their  judges.  It  was  nothing  to  the  purpose 
to  urge  that  the  Propositions  were  susceptible  of  a  non-natural 
signification,  differing  from  that  which  appeared  upon  their 
surface.  The  Pope  was  not  called  upon  to  decide  whether  they 
were  capable  of  being  understood  in  a  Calvinist,  a  Jansenist,  or 
a  Molinist  sense;  but  whether,  taken  in  their  obvious,  gram- 
matical, and  literal  acceptation,  they  were  or  were  not  agreeable 
to  the  Catholic  faith. 

The  Jansenists  relied  with  unbounded  confidence  on  the 
identity  of  doctrinal  teaching  (which,  according  to  them,  was 
complete  and  indisputable)  between  Jansenius  and  St.  Augustine. 
If  they  could  establish  this,  nothing  more  was  needed,  they  con- 
ceived, in  order  to  make  victory  secure.  Yet  St.  Augustine, 
however  brilliant  the  prestige  attaching  to  his  name,  was  not  in- 
fallible ; — so  far  from  it,  that  sentiments  of  a  conflicting  tendency, 
and  scarcely  capable  of  reconciliation,  may  be  gathered,  as  has 
been  already  noticed,  from  different  parts  of  his  voluminous 
writings.  Under  such  circumstances,  it  is  manifest  that  the 
Church  was  not  bound  to  accept  a  theological  statement  or  a 
metaphysical  theory  merely  because  it  might  be  supported  by 
sporadic  quotations  from  the  works  of  St.  Augustine.  The 


*  See  this  document — ''  Brevissima 
Quinque  Propositionum  in  varies  sen- 


sns  distinctio" — in  D'Argentre,  Collect. 
Judic.,  torn.  iii.  p.  263. 


410  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XL 

Church,  it  need  scarcely  be  said,  had  never  adopted  any  indi- 
vidual theologian  as  her  exclusive  oracle.  Augustine  had 
defended  certain  broad,  general  principles  on  the  subject  of 
Divine  grace,  with  regard  to  which  he  was  justly  honoured 
throughout  Christendom  as  a  pillar  of  orthodoxy ;  but  he  had 
also  hazarded  speculations  upon  other  matters  —  matters  of 
abstruse  detail — as  to  some  of  which  no  authoritative  judgment 
had  been  pronounced  at  all,  while  there  were  instances  in  which 
the  voice  of  authority  had  been  adverse  to  Augustine.  The 
extent  to  which  the  Church  had  accepted  him  as  the  exponent 
of  her  mind  had  been  distinctly  indicated  by  the  Council  of 
Trent;  so  that  it  was  vain  to  imagine  that  the  Pope  could 
sanction  any  tenets  propounded  in  his  name  which  were  at 
variance  with  the  Tridentine  definitions. 

That  the  Propositions  were  opposed  to  the  decrees  of  Trent  is 
at  once  apparent  on  comparing  them  with  Chapters  V. — XIII. 
of  the  VIth.  Session  of  that  Council.  Hence  the  Pope  and  his 
Congregation  were  fully  warranted  in  declaring  that  they  did 
not  represent  the  real  views  of  St.  Augustine ;  inasmuch  as  the 
Church  had  determined,  in  and  by  those  very  decrees,  the  true 
sense  in  which  that  Father  was  to  be  understood  by  Catholics. 
Thus  it  was  quite  possible  to  convict  the  bishop  of  Ypres  of  false 
doctrine  without  thereby  inflicting  any  similar  stigma  upon  the 
Bishop  of  Hippo; — a  contingency  which,  singularly  enough, 
seems  never  to  have  entered  into  the  calculations  of  La  Lanne 
and  his  associates.  Their  chief  anxiety,  according  to  their  own 
account,  was,  not  so  much  to  prevent  the  Propositions  from  being 
condemned,  for  they  acknowledged  that  in  a  certain  sense  they 
deserved  condemnation ;  but  to  prevent  their  being  condemned 
in  such  a  sense  as  would  involve  a  censure  of  St.  Augustine,  or 
(what  in  their  view  was  the  same  thing)  of  Jansenius.  They 
insisted  that  the  Propositions,  rightly  interpreted,  were  orthodox ; 
taken  in  a  different  sense,  they  admitted  them  to  be  heretical, 
but  they  denied  that  this  latter  construction  was  the  true  one. 
Such  special  pleading  would  go  far  to  preclude  the  condemnation 
of  doctrinal  error  in  any  shape  whatever ;  for  few  statements  are 
so  hopelessly  heterodox  as  to  be  incapable  of  being  transformed, 
under  a  process  of  dexterous  manipulation,  into  comparative 
harmlessness.  The  position  that  "  certain  precepts  of  the  Divine 
law  cannot  possibly  be  fulfilled  by  Christians,  though  they  may 


A.D.  1653. 


GROUNDS  OF  THE  DECISION. 


411 


desire  and  endeavour  to  do  so,"  is  one  which  shocks  the  first 
instincts  of  a  religious  mind ;  and  the  idea,  thus  expressed,  is 
inevitably  rejected  as  false.  Such  language  may  perhaps  be 
explained  ;  but  only  by  explaining  it  away.  The  same  may 
be  said  of  the  dogma  that  "  man  never  resists  internal  grace" — 
that  "actions  may  be  meritorious,  or  the  contrary,  even  when  they 
are  done  under  necessity  " — and  that  "  our  Saviour  did  not  shed 
His  blood  for  all  mankind."  Thus  coarsely  enunciated,  they,  as 
it  were,  refute  themselves,  and  are  clearly  untenable.  Augustine, 
very  possibly,  may  have  given  apparent  countenance  to  similar 
opinions,  especially  in  some  of  his  earlier  works ;  but  his  language 
is  guarded  and  measured,  if  not  ambiguous;*  whereas  the  con- 
clusions drawn  by  Jansenius  were  indiscreet  and  violent  in  the 
extreme.  This  fact  had  a  decisive  bearing  upon  the  ultimate 
judgment  at  Borne.  The  Pope  and  his  advisers  drew  a  line  of 
separation,  sharply  and  strongly,  between  Jansenius  and  St. 
Augustine.  The  disciple  they  branded  with  heresy ;  but  the 
credit  and  fame  of  the  master — so  immemorially  cherished 
throughout  the  Christian  world — were  left  altogether  intact. 


*  The  following  passage,  so  often 
referred  to  by  Jansenius  and  his  par- 
tisans, was  greatly  overstrained  by 
them,  if  not  altogether  misinterpreted. 
"Ad  hoc  valet  quod  scriptum  est,  si 
volueris,  conservabis  mandata;  uthomo 
qui  voluerit  et  non  potuerit,  nonduni  se 
plene  velle  cognoscat,  et  oret  ut  habeat 
tantum  voluntatem  quanta  sufficit  ad 
implenda  mandata.  Sic  quippe  adju- 
vatur  ut  faciat  quod  jubetur.  .  .  .  Non 
juberet  Deus  quod  sciret  non  posse  ab 
nomine  fieri.  Quis  hoc  nesciat  ?  Sed 
ideo  jubet  aliqua  quse  non  possuinus, 
ut  noverimus  quid  ab  illo  petere  de- 
beamus.  Ipsa  est  enim  fides,  quae 
orando  impetrat  quod  lex  imperat." 
Aug.  De  Grat.  ct  Lib.  Arbitr.,  capp.  15, 
16.  Upon  this  Jansenius  comments 
as  follows: — "Nihil  est  in  doctrina 
Sancti  Augustiui  certius  et  fundatius, 
quam  esse  prsBcepta  qusedam  qua)  ho- 
minibus  non  tantum  infidelibus,  excae- 
catis,  obduratis,  sed  fidelibus  quoque  et 


justis,  volentibus,  et  conantibus  secun- 
diim  praesentes  quas  habent  vires,  sunt 
impossibilia ;  deesse  quoque  gratiam 
qua  fiant  possibilia."  (Jansen. '  Augus- 
tin.',  torn.  iii.  Lib.  iii.  cap.  13.)  And 
again ;  "  Cum  plurimi  non  petnnt  gra- 
tiam illam  qua  possint  ac  sufficiant 
praecepta  facere ;  vel  non  ita  petant  ut 
ad  impetrandum  necessarium  est ;  nee 
omnibus  gratiam  vel  ferventer  petendi, 
vel  omnino  petendi  Deus  largiatur, 
apertissimum  est  multis  fidelibus  deesse 
illam  sufficientem  gratiam,  et  conse- 
quenter  illam  perpetuam,  quam  qui- 
dam.  praedicant,  faciendi  prsecepti  facul- 
tatem."  (16.  circa  finem.)  Such  state- 
ments prove  pretty  clearly,  on  the  one 
hand,  that  the  Five  Propositions  were 
really  held  by  Jansenius;  while,  on 
the  other,  they  make  it  questionable 
whether  Jansenius  can  be  taken  as 
a  faithful  exponent  of  the  mind  of 
St.  Augustine. 


412  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XII. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

THE  decision  was  finally  taken  on  the  eve  of  Whitsunday,  the 
31st  of  May,  1653 ;  and  eight  days  afterwards  the  bull  "  Cum 
occasione"    was    promulgated  at  Borne  with  the   customary 
formalities.     "  Whereas "  (such  is  its  tenor),  "  on  the  occasion 
of  the  printing  of  a  work  entitled  the  Augustinus  of  Cornelius 
Jansenius,  Bishop  of  Ypres,  among  other  opinions  of  that  author 
a  controversy  arose,  principally  in  France,  respecting  five  of 
them  ;  many  of  the  Gallican  bishops  pressed  us  to  enter  into  an 
examination  of  the  said  contested  opinions,  and  to  pronounce  a 
definite  judgment  concerning  each  of  them.     We,  who  amid  the 
manifold  cares  which  continually  trouble  our  mind,  are  anxious 
above  all  things  that  the  Church  of  God  committed  to  us  may 
be  delivered  from  pernicious  errors  which  threaten  its  safety,  and, 
like  a  ship  on  a  tranquil  sea,  may  pursue  its  course  peacefully, 
and  attain  the  wished-for  haven  of  salvation ;  considering  the 
importance  of  the  case,  have  caused  the  aforesaid  propositions  to 
be  diligently  examined,  one  by  one,  by  several  learned  doctors 
in  theology,  in  the  presence  of  certain  Cardinals  of  the  holy 
Roman  Church,  specially  and  frequently  assembled  for  that 
purpose.     We  have  maturely  reviewed  their  suffrages,  given 
both  viva  voce  and  in  writing,  and  have  heard  the  said  doctors 
discourse  at  length  upon  the  propositions,  and  on  each  one  of 
them  separately ;  many  congregations  having  been  held  in  our 
presence.     From  the  commencement  of  these  discussions  we 
directed  prayers,  both  public  and  private,  to  be  offered  for  the 
Divine  assistance,  and  have  latterly  caused  them  to  be  renewed 
with  increased  fervour.     At  length,  by  the  favour  and  guidance 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  we  have  arrived  at  the  following  declaration 
and  definition. 

"  As  to  the  first  of  these  propositions,  '  Certain  commandments 
of  God  are  impossible  to  just  persons  who  desire  and  endeavour 
to  obey  them,  as  regards  the  strength  they  then  possess,  and 
such  grace  is  denied  them  as  would  enable  them  to  perform 


A.D.  1653.  THE  BULL  "CUM  OCCASIONS."  413 

them ;'  we  declare  it  to  be  rash,  impious,  blasphemous,  heretical, 
and  as  such  we  condemn  it. 

"  The  second,  '  In  the  state  of  corrupt  nature  internal  grace  is 
never  resisted ' — we  declare  heretical,  and  condemn  it  as  such. 

"  The  third — '  In  order  to  merit  and  demerit  in  the  state 
of  fallen  nature,  there  is  no  need  of  liberty  exempt  from  neces- 
sity, but  freedom  from  actual  compulsion  is  sufficient' — we 
declare  heretical,  and  as  such  we  condemn  it. 

"  The  fourth — '  The  Semi-Pelagians  admitted  the  necessity  of 
internal  and  prevenient  grace  for  every  action  in  particular, 
even  for  the  first  beginning  of  faith ;  their  heresy  consisted  in 
maintaining  that  this  grace  is  such  that  man's  will  can  either 
resist  it  or  obey  it ' — we  declare  to  be  false  and  heretical,  and 
as  such  we  condemn  it. 

"The  fifth — 'It  is  a  Semi-Pelagian  error  to  say  that  Jesus 
Christ  died,  or  shed  His  blood,  for  all  men  without  exception ' 
— we  declare  to  be  false,  rash,  scandalous;  and  if  understood 
in  the  sense  that  Christ  died  for  the  predestined  only,  we 
declare  it  impious,  blasphemous,  derogatory  to  the  goodness  of 
God,  heretical,  and  as  such  we  condemn  it. 

"In  consequence,  the  faithful  of  both  sexes  are  forbidden, 
under  all  the  pains  and  penalties  denounced  against  heretics 
and  their  abettors,  to  believe,  teach,  or  preach  concerning  the 
said  propositions  otherwise  than  the  present  constitution  directs ; 
and  the  diocesan  ordinaries  are  enjoined  to  put  the  laws  of 
ecclesiastical  discipline  in  force  against  all  offenders."  To  guard 
against  misconception,  the  Bull  states  in  conclusion  that  the 
condemnation  of  these  particular  errors  is  not  to  be  taken  as 
conveying  by  implication  any  approval  of  other  opinions  con- 
tained in  the  writings  of  Jansenius. 

When  St.  Amour  and  his  colleagues  presented  themselves  to 
take  leave,  the  Pope  complimented  them  warmly  on  the  learn- 
ing, eloquence,  and  ability  they  had  shown  in  the  discharge  of 
their  duty  ;  and  repeated  the  assurance  that  the  Bull  was  not  to 
be  understood  as  contravening  or  disparaging  in  any  degree  the 
doctrine  of  St.  Augustine,  which  was  and  would  always  be  that 
of  the  Holy  See  and  of  the  Church.*  But  his  Holiness  was  far 


*  Kacine,  Hist,  de  Port  Royal,  p.  72.    Journal  de  Saint  Amour,  Ft.  vi.  chap. 
28. 


414  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XII. 

from  intending  to  affirm  (though  the  Jansenists  thought  proper 
to  interpret  his  words  to  that  effect)  that  every  sentiment  ex- 
pressed by  Augustine  on  the  deep  mysteries  of  grace  was  to  be 
regarded  as  forming  part  of  the  infallible  tradition  of  the 
Church  Catholic. 

Copies  of  the  Bull  were  immediately  despatched  to  France, 
accompanied  by  briefs  to  the  Queen  Kegent,  to  the  King,  to 
Cardinal  Mazarin,  and  to  the  bishops,  exhorting  them  to  cause 
it  to  be  published  and  duly  executed.  A  royal  edict  for  that 
purpose  was  issued  accordingly  to  the  prelates  of  the  kingdom 
on  the  4th  of  July;  and  on  the  llth,  those  who  were  in  Paris 
assembled  at  the  Louvre  to  the  number  of  thirty,  three  of  whom, 
the  Bishops  of  Yalence,  Chalons  and  Grasse,  were  among  the 
signers  of  the  letter  to  the  Pope  in  deprecation  of  the  late  pro- 
ceedings. After  a  speech  from  Mazarin,  the  Bull  was  accepted, 
though  not  altogether  without  objection  ;  and  the  bishops  drew 
up  a  letter  to  the  Pope,  expressing  the  satisfaction  and  gratitude 
with  which  the  Gallican  Church  welcomed  the  important  step 
taken  by  his  Holiness.*  The  questions  lately  agitated,  they 
observed,  were  of  the  deepest  moment ;  vital  doctrines  were  at 
stake;  that  of  the  ineffable  love  which  the  Eedeemer  bears 
to  the  whole  race  of  man;  that  of  the  work  of  salvation, 
effected  as  it  is  co-ordinately  by  the  aid  of  Divine  grace  and  by 
the  free  action  of  the  human  will,  supernaturally  aroused  and 
sustained.  These  truths  had  been  obscured  by  the  rash  lucubra- 
tions of  Jansenius ;  but  his  Holiness  had  re-established  them  in 
all  their  former  lustre  by  the  decree  which  he  had  just  pro- 
nounced at  the  desire  of  the  bishops  of  France,  in  conformity 
with  the  ancient  rule  of  faith  derived  from  Scripture  and  the 
tradition  of  the  Fathers.  In  like  manner  as  Pope  Innocent  I. 
had  condemned  the  heresy  of  Pelagius  upon  the  report  sub- 
mitted to  him  by  the  bishops  of  Africa,  so  had  Innocent  X. 
denounced  heresy  in  its  opposite  extreme  on  the  application  of 
the  Gallican  episcopate.  And  as  the  Church  of  the  fifth  century 
unanimously  adhered  to  the  judgment  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff 
of  that  day,  relying  not  only  on  the  promises  made  by  Christ  to 
St.  Peter,  but  on  the  acts  of  preceding  Popes,  such  as  those  of 


*  M&moires  du   Clergf  de  France,  torn.   i.  p.   235.     D  Aviigny,  Mfm.  Chro- 
nolog.,  torn.  ii.  p.  268. 


A.D.  1653.         RECEPTION  OF  THE  BULL  IN  FRANCE.  415 

Damasus  in  condemnation  of  Apollinarius  and  Macedonius ;  so 
his  Holiness  might  be  assured  that  in  the  present  instance,  the 
same  supreme  authority  having  been  exerted,  it  would  be 
regarded  by  the  whole  Church  with  the  same  unqualified  re- 
spect. Since  in  this  cause  the  earthly  monarch  might  be  said 
(in  the  language  of  Sixtus  III.)  to  be  confederate  with  the  King 
of  heaven,  there  could  be  no  question  that  the  new  heresy  would 
be  crushed  against  the  immovable  Eock,  and  would  be  finally 
destroyed. 

The  same  prelates  addressed  a  circular  letter  to  their 
brethren,  together  with  a  form  of  mandement,  which  they 
recommended  for  adoption  and  publication  in  every  diocese. 
The  bishops  in  general  accepted  this  recommendation ;  but  some 
few  judged  it  advisable  to  explain  that  the  bull — in  the  terms 
of  which  they  cordially  concurred — was  not  designed  to  affect 
in  any  measure  the  doctrine  of  St.  Augustine  concerning 
efficacious  grace.  Foremost  among  those  who  took  this  course 
was  Gondrin,  Archbishop  of  Sens,  a  well-known  partisan  of 
the  Jansenists;  he  was  followed  by  Henry  Arnauld,  Bishop 
of  Angers  (a  brother  of  the  great  Antoine),  and  by  the  Bishops  of 
Beauvais,  Orleans,  and  Comniinges.* 

The  Sorbonne,  on  the  motion  of  the  Bishop  of  Rennes,  re- 
gistered the  Pope's  constitution  without  opposition  ;  and  it  was 
ordered  that  any  member  of  the  Faculty  who  might  thence- 
forward maintain  publicly  either  of  the  condemned  Propositions 
should  be  expelled  from  the  Society,  and  his  name  be  erased 
from  the  list  of  doctors.  Corresponding  measures  were  adopted 
by  the  provincial  Universities,  and  by  most  of  the  religious  com- 
munities. The  bull  was  likewise  accepted  without  hesitation  in 
Flanders,  and  even  by  the  University  of  Louvain,  the  very 
cradle  of  JanSenist  theology. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  posture  of  political  affairs 
at  this  moment  was  unfavourable  to  the  Jansenists.  The  faction 
of  the  Fronde — with  which,  whether  justly  or  unjustly,  they  had 
been  identified  from  the  beginning  of  the  civil  troubles — had 
recently  made  its  submission  to  the  Government.  Mazarin  had 
returned  triumphantly  from  exile ;  his  bitter  enemy,  De  Eetz, 


*  D'Avrigny,  M€m.   Chronolog.,  torn.  ii.  p.  277.     Kllies-Dupin,   Hist.  Ecdes. 
du  XVII.  Siecle,  torn.  ii.     Histoire.  df  Port  Royal,  Part  ii.  Liv.  xi. 


416  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XII. 

who  was  generally  looked  upon  as  the  most  powerful  patron  of 
Port  Royal,  had  been  outmanoeuvred  by  the  Court,  and  was  a 
prisoner  in  the  chateau  of  Vincennes.  The  minister,  in  this  full 
tide  of  popularity,  found  no  difficulty  in  carrying  out  a  rigorous 
line  of  policy  against  the  defenders  of  the  '  Augustinus,' 
damaged  and  discredited  as  they  were  already  in  public  opinion. 
The  questions  in  dispute,  in  their  purely  theological  character, 
were  to  Mazarin  matters  of  supreme  indifference  ;  but  it  was  his 
interest  to  conciliate  the  Pope,  who  had  expressed  strongly  his 
displeasure  at  the  imprisonment  of  De  Retz,  and  the  attempts 
made  to  extort  from  him  a  resignation  of  his  see ;  while  the  pre- 
servation of  his  ascendency  at  court  was  an  object  still  nearer  to 
his  heart.  He  saw  that  both  purposes  might  be  served  at  once 
by  gratifying  the  Jesuits ;  and  accordingly  the  subtle  Italian  lent 
himself  willingly  to  the  designs  of  the  party  which  for  the  time 
was  in  the  stronger  position.  The  heads  of  the  French  Church 
acquiesced  with  more  or  less  alacrity ;  and  whereas  the  bull 
"  In  eminenti "  had  been  the  subject  of  endless  cavils,  the  bull 
"  Cum  occasione "  was  approved  almost  unanimously  through- 
out the  kingdom. 

The  pastoral  of  the  Archbishop  of  Sens  was  forwarded  by  the 
nuncio  at  Paris  to  Rome,  where  it  excited  grave  animadversion  ; 
for  the  writer  had  enunciated  in  strong  terms  the  obnoxious 
Galilean  maxim,  that  the  right  of  judging  in  the  first  instance 
in  causes  ecclesiastical  belongs  to  the  diocesan  episcopate.  The 
Pope  threatened  the  Archbishop  with  excommunication ;  but 
contented  himself  afterwards  with  naming  a  commission  of 
bishops  to  adjudicate  in  his  stead.  The  Commissioners  (or 
rather  the  Nuncio  and  Mazarin,  who  took  the  matter  into  their 
own  hands)  endeavoured  to  obtain  satisfaction  from  the  Arch- 
bishop in  the  shape  of  a  letter  disavowing  the  doctrines  of  his 
pastoral.  This  he  declined;  but  consented,  after  much  nego- 
ciation,  to  write  to  the  Pope  signifying  in  general  terms  his 
adhesion  to  the  late  constitution,  avoiding,  however,  any  pre- 
cise definition  of  the  sense  which  he  attached  to  the  condemnation 
of  the  Five  Propositions.*  This  ultimatum  in  the  way  of  conces- 
sion was  tacitly  accepted,  and  no  further  proceedings  were  taken 
in  the  case. 


*  This  arrangement  was  duo  to  the  good  offices  of  Pierre  de  Marca,  then 
Archbishop  of  Toulouse. 


A.D.  1654.        EVASIVE  SYSTEM  OF  THE  JANSENISTS.  417 

Notwithstanding  the  universal  profession  of  readiness  to 
bow  to  the  judgment  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  the  excitement 
connected  with  Jansenius  and  his  work  was  by  no  means 
destined  to  subside.  At  the  point  which  we  have  now  reached 
the  controversy  entered  upon  a  new  phase;  and  henceforward 
the  course  pursued  by  the  Jansenists  does  little  credit  to  their 
reputation  for  honesty  and  candour.  The  bull  "Cum  occa- 
sione"  was  manifestly  intended  to  condemn  certain  opinions 
published  and  maintained  by  the  late  Bishop  of  Ypres.  The 
4  Augustinus '  was  the  sole  subject-matter  of  the  controversy  ; 
the  application  to  Rome  had  been  made  for  the  express  pur- 
pose of  obtaining  a  definite  judgment  on  its  contents ;  and  the 
whole  drift  of  the  judicial  investigation  tended  towards  this 
end.  The  bull,  however,  did  not  declare  that  the  condemned 
propositions  were  cited,  totidem  verbis,  from  the  'Augustinus;' 
while  on  the  other  hand  the  Pope  had  privately  stated  that 
the  censure  by  no  means  applied  to  the  doctrine  of  efficacious 
grace,*  nor  to  any  other  part  of  the  teaching  of  St.  Augustine. 
From  these  two  facts,  the  Jansenists  proceeded  to  extract  a 
system  of  evasive  self-justification.  They  admitted  that  the 
Five  Propositions  were  justly  condemned ;  but  they  contended 
that  Jansenius  had  never  held  such  opinions;  that  no  such 
statements  were  to  be  found  in  his  work  ;  that  his  doctrine  on 
the  points  in  question  was  identical  with  that  of  St.  Augustine, 
which  was  confessedly  unimpeached  and  unimpeachable;  and 
that  in  consequence  the  Pontifical  sentence  was  no  more  a 
condemnation  of  the  Bishop  of  Ypres  than  of  the  Bishop  of 
Hippo.  The  sense  in  which  the  Propositions  were  declared 
heretical,  they  insisted,  was  not  that  of  Jansenius,  but  one  falsely 
imputed  to  him,  altogether  misrepresenting  his  sentiments. 
His  real  belief  had  been  explained  at  length  by  those  who 
lately  advocated  his  cause  at  Rome.  It  was  that  of  an  orthodox 


*  Both  Molinists  and  Jansenists  |  its  subjects.  The  Jansenists  main- 
alike  professed  to  hold  this  doctrine,  \  tained  the  former  to  be  the  doctrine  of 
which  rested  too  firmly  on  the  authority  St.  Augustine  and  of  all  antiquity  ; 
of  the  primitive  Church  to  be  denied  in  the  Molinists  contended  for  the  latter 


terms  by  any  Catholic  divine.  The 
point  at  issue  between  them  was 
whether  the  efficacy  of  grace  is  exclu- 
sively inherent  in  its  own  essence,  or 
whether  it  is  efficacious  only  in  con- 


interpretation.  The  bull  "  Cum  occa- 
sione  "  did  r.ot  touch  this  controversy. 
All  that  it  really  decided  was  that  the 
doctrine  of  Jansenius  was  not  that  of 
St.  Augustine. 


junction  with  the  will  of  those  who  are 

VOL.  r.  2    K 


418  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XII. 

Catholic,  equally  far  removed  from  the  heresy  of  Calvin  on  the 
one  side  and  from  the  Serni-Pelagianism  of  Molina  on  the  other. 
Such  was  tlie  purport  of  three  treatises  from  the  pen  of 
Antoine  Arnauld*  (printed,  however,  without  his  name),  in 
reply  to  one  entitled  'Cavilli  Jansenianorum,'  by  Father  Annat, 
the  Jesuit  confessor  of  Louis  XIV.  The  bishops,  wbo  saw  that 
if  this  sophistical  line  of  defence  were  allowed  to  pass  un- 
challenged the  Pope's  bull  would  become  utterly  illusory,  forth- 
with held  a  meeting,  and  appointed  a  committee  to  examine 
whether  the  Five  Propositions  existed  textually  in  the  work  of 
Jansenius.  After  careful  investigation,  they  reported,  on  the 
26th  of  March,  1651,  that  the  Propositions  were  indubitably 
contained  in  the  '  Augustinus ;'  that  the  Pope  had  condemned 
them  as  having  been  advanced  by  Jansenius,  and  in  the  sense 
intended  by  that  author;  that  the  said  Propositions  follow  of 
necessity  from  the  dogma  that  all  grace  which  gives  the  power 
to  act  rightly  is  invariably  efficacious;  and  that  this  being 
notoriously  the  doctrine  of  Jansenius,  the  condemned  heresies 
must,  by  the  very  force  of  the  terms,  be  referred  to  him.  The 
report  pointed  out,  further,  that  the  Jansenists  were  without 
warrant  in  asserting  that  their  doctrine  was  identical  with  that 
of  St.  Augustine ;  that  Augustine,  rightly  understood,  was  in 
accordance  with  the  late  Papal  constitution,  and  opposed  to  the 
opinions  of  Jansenius.  Augustine,  undoubtedly,  had  taught, 
with  regard  to  the  subjects  in  dispute,  what  appertained  to  the 
Rule  of  Faith;  but  he  had  taught,  in  addition,  other  things 
which  were  not  of  faith,  and  which  had  been  left  undecided  by 
Pope  Celestine.  Now,  it  was  the  misfortune  of  Jansenius  that 
the  opinions  contained  in  the  Five  Propositions  were  not  among 
those  which  the  Church  had  classed  as  open  questions,  but  among 
those  which  were  contrary  to  the  primitive  Kule  of  Faith — 
that  faith  which  Augustine  had  so  triumphantly  defended.  No 
Catholic  writer  of  an  earlier  date  than  Baius  had  ever  inter- 
preted Augustine  in  the  sense  advocated  by  Jansenius;  and 
Baius,  as  all  the  world  knew,  had  been  condemned  for  that 
very  reason  by  Popes  Gregory  XIII.  and  Pius  V.  In  conclu- 


*  1.  'Eeponse   au  Pere  Annat  <ou-  |  positions  sur  la  veritable  doctrine  de 

chant  les  V.  Propositions.'     2.   '  Me-  i  S.  Augustin.'      3.  '  Eclaircissement  de 

moire  sur  le  dessein  des  Jesuites  de  quelques  nouvelles   objections    sur  le 

faire  retoraber  la  censure  des  V.  Pro-  Fait  de  Jansenius.* 


A.D.  1654.        REPOET  OF  THE  ASSEMBLY  OF  CLERGY.  419 

sion,  the  Report  referred  to  the  Council  of  Trent,  whose  decrees 
had  fixed  definitively  the  true  meaning  of  that  great  and 

•/  O  O 

saintly  Doctor  of  the  Church,  whom  commentators  so  grossly 
misrepresented.* 

This  report  was  opposed  at  first  by  the  Archbishop  of  Sens 
and  other  prelates;  but  eventually  they  agreed  to  it,  with 
certain  reservations,  out  of  consideration  for  their  brethren 
and  for  the  sake  of  peace.  It  was  forwarded  to  Rome,  and  was 
received  by  the  Pope  with  lively  expressions  of  gratitude.  His 
Holiness  replied  in  a  brief  addressed  to  the  General  Assembly 
of  the  French  clergy,  in  which  he  stated  that  he  had  con- 
demned by  his  bull  "  the  doctrine  of  Cornelius  Jansenius,  as 
contained  in  his  work  entitled  '  Augustinus.' "  By  the  same 
brief  he  exhorted  the  clergy  to  execute  a  decree  which  he  had 
recently  issued,  proscribing  no  less  than  forty  different  publi- 
cations in  defence  of  Jansenius.  The  list  included  Antoine 
Arnauld's  two  '  Apologies '  for  that  prelate  ;  the  famous  '  Ecrit 
a  trois  colonnes ;'  a  treatise, '  De  la  Grace  victorieuse,'  by  the 
Abbe  de  la  Lanne ;  the  pastoral  letters  of  the  Archbishop  of 
Sens  and  the  Bishop  of  Coinminges  ;  and  the  '  Catechisme  de  la 
Grace,'  attributed  to  a  doctor  of  the  Sorbonne  named  Feydeau. 

These  were  among  the  last  acts  of  the  pontificate  of  Inno- 
cent X.  He  expired  on  the  7th  of  January,  1655,  and  was 
succeeded  by  Cardinal  Chigi,  who  assumed  the  name  of  Alex- 
ander VII. 

Mazarin,  without  waiting  for  the  regular  session  of  the 
General  Assembly,  called  the  bishops  together  at  the  Louvre 
in  May,  1655,  and  persuaded  them  not  only  to  receive  the  late 
brief  of  Pope  Innocent,  but  also  to  send  a  circular  letter  to 
their  colleagues,  urging  them  to  cause  the  bull  "  Cum  occasione," 
together  with  the  brief  of  September,  1654,  to  be  subscribed  by 
the  clergy  of  all  ranks  throughout  the  kingdom,  including  the 
rectors  of  Universities '  and  all  persons  holding  public  office  in 
the  Church,  under  pain  of  being  proceeded  against  as  heretics.t 
Such  was  the  first  mention  of  this  ill-advised  measure,  the 
ulterior  results  of  which  were  so  fraught  with  disaster  to  the 
Church  of  France. 


*  Me'moires  du  Clerge"  de  France, 
torn.  i.  p.  202,  et  seqq.  Proces-Ver- 
baux  des  Assemblies  Ge'ite'rales  du  Cl.  de 


F.,  torn.  iv. '  Pieces  justificatives,'  No.  v. 
Me'inoires   du    Clerge    de   France, 


torn.  i.  p.  265. 


2  E  2 


420  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XII. 

It  might  have  been  reasonably  hoped  that,  since  Borne  had 
now  spoken  in  a  tone  of  authority  which  none  could  mistake  or 
dispute,  both  parties  in  the  strife  would  be  content  to  lay  down 
their  arms  and  proclaim  peace;  that  the  victors  would  have 
deemed  it  wise  to  triumph  with  moderation  ;  and  that  the 
vanquished,  on  their  part,  would  have  exhibited  a  spirit  of 
frank  and  cordial  submission.  Events,  however,  turned  out 
very  differently.  The  Jansenists,  while  professing  to  abjure  ex 
aninio  the  five  heretical  Propositions,  persisted  in  their  theory 
that,  notwithstanding  the  recent  proceedings,  the  doctrine  of 
Jansenius  was  not  in  reality  condemned.  The  dominant  majority, 
on  the  other  hand,  abused  their  success ;  they  pressed  the  Papal 
judgment  to  unwarrantable  lengths,  and  converted  it  into  an  in- 
strument of  persecution.  The  stigma  of  heresy  was  now  inflicted 
without  mercy  upon  all  who  were  known  to  sympathise  in  any 
measure  with  Jansenius;  and  the  scourge  was  applied  with 
special  rigour  to  Port  Royal,  upon  which  ill-fated  community 
the  Jesuits  resolved  to  wreak  their  malice  to  the  uttermost. 

Port  Royal  was  at  this  time  in  the  meridian  of  its  fame 
and  prosperity.  The  Abbess  Angelique  had  returned,  in 
May,  1648,  to  the  original  cloister  in  the  valley  of  Chevreuse, 
where  the  community  over  which  she  presided  seldom  num- 
bered less  than  a  hundred,  including  novices  and  postulants. 
Singlin  still  filled  the  office  of  Director,  assisted  by  Isaac  de 
Sacy,  one  of  the  nephews  of  Antoine  Amauld.  Pierre  Nicole, 
Claude  Lancelot,  Sebastian  Tillemont,  were  prosecuting  their 
learned  labours  at  Les  Granges,  a  farmhouse  which  overlooked 
the  monastery.  The  Due  de  Luynes,  son  of  the  Constable,  was 
installed  in  a  moJest  mansion,  the  Chateau  de  Vaumurier,  in 
close  proximity  to  the  abbey,  where  he  led  a  life  of  pious  and 
studious  seclusion.  It  was  at  this  period,  too,  that  the  Port 
Royalists  received  an  illustrious  addition  to  their  ranks  in  the 
person  of  Blaise  Pascal, — a  name  not  more  inseparably  linked 
with  the  history  of  philosophical  and  scientific  discovery  than 
with  the  Jansenistic  controversy.  His  sister  Jacqueline  had 
made  her  profession  at  the  convent  some  two  years  previously, 
under  the  name  of  Soaur  Ste.  Euphemie.  Her  influence,  added 
to  the  fervent  exhortations  of  Singlin  and  De  Sacy,  and  the 
impression  produced  by  a  remarkable  escape  from  imminent 
danger  to  his  life,  determined  Pascal  to  dedicate  the  remainder 


A.D.  1655.  AFFAIR  OF  THE  DUC  DE  LIANCOUR.  421 

of  his  days  to  Goi;  and  be  joined  the  Jansenist  fraternity  to- 
wards the  close  of  1654.*  Two  of  his  intimate  friends  followed 
him  soon  afterwards — the  Due  de  Koannez  and  M.  Domat,  a 
celebrated  advocate  of  Clermont. 

Antoine  Arnauld,  since  the  promulgation  of  the  Bull  "  Ciim 
occasione,"  or  at  all  events  since  it  had  been  confirmed  by 
Alexander  VII.,  had  taken  refuge  in  prudential  silence.  He 
sometimes  visited  Port  Royal,  but  declined  as  far  as  possible  all 
public  duty,  and  occupied  himself  in  preparing  a  treatise  in 
refutation  of  the  Calvinistic  doctrine  of  the  Eucharist.  But 
this  interval  of  comparative  tranquillity  was  to  be  abruptly 
terminated.  The  Jesuits,  flushed  with  victory,  could  not  resist 
the  opportunity  of  dealing  a  fatal  blow  to  the  prestige  and 
power  of  their  rivals,  reckless  of  the  consequences  which  such  a 
course  might  entail  upon  the  national  Church  at  large.  At 
this  moment,  indeed,  it  would  have  required  an  uncommon 
share  of  dispassionate  judgment  and  far-sighted  wisdom  to 
perceive  that  the  cause  of  religion  would  be  better  served  by 
conciliating  the  Port  Royalists  than  by  driving  them  to  despe- 
ration. It  was  on  occasion  on  which,  if  ever,  it  was  excusable 
to  identify  the  triumph  of  a  party  with  the  triumph  of  Catholic 
truth. 

The  following  are  the  circumstances  which  led  to  the  outburst 
of  the  storm. 

Among  the  many  aristocratic  patrons  of  the  Jansenists  one 
of  the  stanchest  was  the  Due  de  Liancour, — a  nobleman  who, 
after  wasting  his  earlier  years  in  fashionable  dissipation,  had 
been  won  to  a  life  of  piety  by  the  counsels  and  example  of  his 
wife,  a  daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Schomberg.  The  Duke,  when 
at  Paris,  resided  in  the  parish  of  S.  Sulpice, — at  that  time  under 
the  pastoral  charge  of  the  celebrated  Abbe  Olier.  In  January, 
1655,  the  Duke  was  informed  by  M.  Picote,  one  of  the  clergy  of 
S.  Sulpice  to  whom  he  resorted  for  confession,  that  he  could  not 
give  him  absolution  unless  he  promised  to  break  off  all  inter- 
course with  "  Messieurs  de  Port  Royal " — a  connection  incom- 
patible with  due  deference  to  the  late  decisions  of  the  Church. 
In  particular,  the  confessor  required  that  the  Duke's  grand- 
daughter, who  was  receiving  her  education  at  Port  Royal, 


*  Bonav.  Racine,  Histoire  Ecdesiastique,  torn.  xii.  p.  127. 


422 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  XI  r. 


should  be  removed;  and  that  two  leading  Jansenists,  Des 
Mares  and  Bourgeois,  who  were  sojourning  under  the  duke's 
roof,  should  no  longer  be  entertained  there.  M.  de  Liancour, 
staggered  and  offended,  declined  compliance,  and  left  the  con- 
fessional without  absolution.*  He  forthwith  complained  to  his 
friends — Yincent  de  Paul  among  others — of  the  strange  treat- 
ment he  had  met  with ;  and  the  affair  became  speedily  and 
widely  public.  It  was  an  act  of  direct  challenge  to  Port  Eoyal, 
and  was  not  likely  to  pass  unanswered.  Antoine  Arnauld, 
with  characteristic  alacrity,  stepped  forth  once  more  into  the 
lists,  prepared  to  do  battle  a  outrance  against  all  comers.  On 
the  24th.  of  February,  1655,  appeared  (anonymously)  his  '  Lettre 
a  une  personne  de  condition ; '  f  in  which  he  maintains,  on  the 
authority  of  St.  Augustine  and  St.  Leo,  that  a  priest  is  not  justified 
in  withholding  the  Sacraments  from  any  but  persons  actually 
convicted  and  excommunicated  as  heretics ;  and  that  MM. 
de  Port  Eoyal  were  by  no  means  in  that  predicament.  Their 
doctrine,  he  contended,  was  that  of  St.  Augustine,  which  had 
been  declared  by  successive  Popes  and  Councils  to  be  that  of 
the  Church.  And  even  supposing  they  had  fallen  into  error, 
this  was  a  matter  belonging  to  the  cognizance  of  the  Diocesan, 
and  not  of  the  parochial  clergy.  Arnauld  moreover  asserted, 
in  the  name  of  his  whole  party,  that  they  were  ready  to  abjure 
the  five  heretical  Propositions  wherever  they  might  be  found, 
including  the  writings  of  Jansenius,  though  they  were  unable 
to  perceive  them  there.}  They  were  not  committed,  he  said, 


*  Gerberon,  Hist.  Gen.  du  Jansen- 
isme,  torn.  ii.  p.  256. 

t  CEuvres  d' Arnauld.  torn.  xix.  p. 
311. 

J  This  line  of  apology  was  palpably 
inconsistent  with  their  earlier  senti- 
ments upon  the  question.  Arnauld 
himself  had  maintained  in  his  pam- 
phlet against  the  Enterprise  de  M. 
Cornet,  that  the  Propositions  were  not 
deserving  of  censure,  and  that  they 
could  not  be  condemned  without  intro- 
ducing new  articles  of  faith  unknown 
to  the  tradition  of  the  Church.  How 
could  he  have  argued  thus,  had  he 
not  at  that  time  believed  the  Proposi- 
tions to  be  orthodox,  and  (what  is 
more)  to  have  been  really  held  in  sub- 
stance by  Jansenius  ?  Such  a  man  as 


Arnauld  is  not  for  a  moment  to  be 
charged  with  conscious  disingenuous- 
ness;  but  he  was  ceitainly  a  master  of 
the  difficult  art  of  "  changing  front  in 
face  of  an  enemy."  For  the  sake  of 
some  readers  it  may  be  well  to  quote 
here  the  deliberate  opinion  of  the  great 
Bossuet  as  to  the  •'  fact  of  Jansenius." 
''  If  your  confessor,"  he  writes  to  the 
Mare'chal  de  Bellefonds,  "  who  forbids 
you  to  speak  of  the  Five  Propositions 
without  adding  that  they  were  held  by 
Jansenius,  means  merely  to  prevent 
you  from  asserting  that  they  are  not 
his,  he  is  right.  You  ought  not  to 
make  such  an  assertion;  inasmuch  as 
even  those  who  defend  Jansenius  ac- 
knowledge that,  out  of  respect  for  the 
ecclesiastical  judgment  which  has  de- 


A.D.  1655.    ARNAULD'S  «  LETTERS  TO  A  DUKE  AND  PEER.'    423 

to  any  private  speculations  broached  by  modern  theologians ; 
but  relied  solely  upon  the  authority  and  universally-accepted 
teaching  of  St.  Augustine. 

The  Molinists,  well  pleased  to  have  provoked  Arnauld  to 
resume  his  polemical  attitude,  launched  a  profusion  of  pamphlets 
in  reply,  urging  that  mere  professions  of  acquiescence  were  not 
sufficient  under  the  circumstances ;  that  divines  who  at  one  time 
had  notoriously  defended  Jansenius  were  bound,  after  the  decision 
of  the  Vatican,  to  disavow  their  error  in  express  terms,  and 
renounce  the  views  of  that  author  as  contained,  and  pronounced 
by  the  Church  to  be  contained,  in  the  Five  Propositions.  Espe- 
cially was  this  indispensable  since  the  Assembly  of  the  clergy 
of  France  had  affirmed  so  positively  that  the  Propositions  were 
condemned  as  being  extracted  from  the  *  Augustinus '  of 
Jansenius,  and  in  the  sense  intended  by  that  prelate.  If  the 
friends  of  Port  Royal  hesitated  to  accept,  in  identical  terms, 
these  declarations  of  the  Holy  Father  and  of  the  G-allican  clergy, 
they  must  not  complain  of  any  suspicions  which  might  arise 
with  regard  to  the  sincerity  of  their  present  professions. 

These  taunts  drew  from  Arnauld  his  'Second  Letter  to  a 
Duke  and  Peer  of  France '  (the  Due  de  Luynes),  which  bore  his 
name,  and  was  dated  from  Port  Royal  des  Champs,  July  10, 
1655.  It  was  a  volume  in  size,  and  contains  a  complete  digest 
of  the  discipline  of  the  Church  as  to  the  Sacraments  of  Penance 
and  the  Eucharist;  followed,  in  the  second  part,  by  a  bold 
defence  of  the  position  maintained  by  the  Jansenists  in  relation 
to  the  Bull  "Cum  occasione,"  the  declaration  of  the  Gallican 
clergy,  the  doctrine  of  Jansenius,  and  the  five  condemned  Pro- 
positions. Arnauld  transmitted  this  treatise  to  Pope  Alexander 
VII.,  with  a  letter  expressing  unqualified  submission  to  the 
judgment  of  his  Holiness. 

It  was  from  this  '  Second  Letter  to  a  Duke  and  Peer '  *  that 


eided  tliat  they  are  his,  they  are  bound  j  pure  chicane^  and  a  device  for  eluding 

to  preserve  silence  on  that  point !   the  judgment  of  the  Church.    To  say 

For  the  rest,  I  am  very  happy  to  tell  that  one  ought  not  to  have,  and  cannot 
you,  in  a  few  words,  my  sentiments  have,  a  pious  belief  in  her  decisions 
on  the  main  question.  I  am  of  opinion,  :  on  matters  of  fact,  is  to  advance  a  pro- 
then,  that  the  Propositions  are  really  |  position  of  dangerous  consequence,  and 
and  truly  in  Jansenius,  and  that  contrary  both  to  tradition  and  prac- 
they  are  the  soul  (fame)  of  his  book.  !  tice."  Correspondence  de  Bossuet,  Let- 
All  that  has  been  said  to  the  contrary  ,  tret  diverges,  Lett.  lii. 
appears  to  me  mere  sophistry  (une  *  GEuvres  d' Arnauld,  torn.  xix.  p.  335. 


424 


THE  GALLIC  AN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  XIT. 


the  enemies  of  Arnnuld  extracted  two  distinct  charges,  which 
they  pressed  against  himself  and  the  cause  which  he  repre- 
sented, with  terrible  and  ruinous  effect.  They  accused  him,  in 
the  first  place,  of  denying  that  the  Five  Propositions  were  con- 
tained in  the  '  Augustinus '  of  Jansenius — thereby  contravening 
the  express  decisions  of  the  Holy  See ;  and  secondly,  of  re- 
asserting, in  other  words,  the  first  of  the  Propositions  in  the 
following  statement : — "  The  Fathers  point  out  to  us,  in  the 
person  of  St.  Peter,  a  just  man  to  whom  that  grace  was  wanting 
without  which  we  can  do  nothing,  on  an  occasion  when  it  can- 
not be  denied  that  he  fell  into  sin."  These  impeachments — the 
former  of  which  became  known  as  the  "  question  de  fait "  or  of 
fact,  and  the  latter  as  that  of  "droit"  or  doctrine — were  for- 
mally laid  before  the  Sorbonne  on  the  4th  of  November,  1655. 

The  conflict  of  parties  now  became  of  absorbing  interest, 
and  stirred  the  religious  mind  of  France  to  its  inmost  depths. 
With  the  Jansenists  it  was  henceforth  a  struggle  for  life  or  death ; 
for  the  manifest  object  of  this  new  attack  was  to  destroy  for 
ever  the  character  of  their  leader,  and  to  leave  them  no  ten- 
able standing-point  within  the  pale  of  the  Church.* 

On  the  motion  being  made  for  a  Committee  to  examine 
Arnauld's  treatise,  his  friends  urged  that,  since  he  had  appealed 
to  the  Pope  for  his  judgment  on  the  work,  the  Sorbonne  could 
not  with  propriety  take  any  steps  which  might  anticipate  that 
sentence.  This,  however,  was  overruled,  and  it  was  resolved  by 
a  majority  of  voices  to  proceed  with  the  examination.  A  Com- 
mittee of  six  doctors  was  thereupon  appointed,  all  of  whom  are 
said  to  have  been  well  known  as  hostile  to  the  Jansenists.f 

The  ancient  usages  of  the  Theological  Faculty  seem  to  have 
been  violated  without  scruple  on  this  occasion.  One  statute 
provided  that  the  Mendicant  Friars  should  never  enjoy  more 
than  eight  votes  at  the  deliberative  meetings — two  for  each 
Order.  Thirty  and  even  forty  monks  were  nevertheless  allowed 
to  congregate  in  this  Assembly — a  number  sufficient  to  turn  the 


*  The  following  extract  shows  how 
the  Jesuit  tactics  were  regarded  at  the 
time  by  a  sharp-witted  man  of  the 
world.  ''On  continue  en  Sorbonne  de 
tounnenter  le  pauvre  M.  A.  Aruauld, 
qui  vaut  inieux  quo  tous  les  Molinistes 
ensem!  le  — Ics  uns  pour  avoir  k-s 


bonnes  graces  de  la  Reino,  et  k'S 
autres  pour  attraper  des  be'ne'fices  et 
avoir  du  credit  a  Rome.  Auri  sacra 
fames,  etc."  Gui  Patin,  Lettre  cclxiv. 
January  11,  1655. 

t  Gerberon,    Hist,    du    Jansenisme, 
toia.  ii.  p.  259. 


A.D.  1655.      ARNAULD  CONDEMNED  BY  THE  SORBONNE.        425 

scale  in  whatever  direction  they  pleased.  Against  this  pro- 
ceeding sixty  doctors,  with  Louis  de  St.  Amour  at  their  head, 
complained,  "  comme  d'abus,"  to  the  Parliament ;  but  the  Court 
and  Mazariu  interposed,  and  the  magistrates,  availing  them- 
selves of  a  technical  difficulty,  postponed  their  decision  upon 
the  appeal  until  long  after  the  debates  at  the  Sorbonne  had 
concluded.*  The  report  of  the  Committee  pronounced  Arnauld 
censurable  upon  both  counts  of  the  indictment :  upon  the  first 
question,  that  of  fact — they  declared  his  sentiments  "rash, 
disrespectful  to  the  Holy  See,  and  injurious  to  the  clergy  of 
France."  His  doctrine  on  the  second  point,  relating  to  the  fall 
of  St.  Peter,  they  stigmatized  as  heretical,  and  already  con- 
demned as  such  by  the  Church. 

A  tumultuous  contest  arose  when  this  report  was  presented  to 
the  Faculty.  Such  was  the  prevailing  disorder,  that  Hardouin 
de  Perefixe,  then  Bishop  of  Rodez,  procured  a  lettre  de  cachet 
for  restraining  the  combatants  within  more  decorous  bounds  ; 
aud  the  king  ordered  Seguier,  the  Chancellor,  to  take  his  seat 
in  the  assembly  for  the  purpose  of  enforcing  obedience  to  this 
mandate. 

Arnauld  declined  to  defend  himself  in  person,  since  the  per- 
mission to  do  so  was  clogged  with  conditions  which  he  deemed 
unjust  and  disadvantageous.  He  confined  himself  therefore  to 
written  statements ;  repeating,  with  every  variety  of  expression, 
the  same  tone  of  self- vindication — that  he  had  carefully  studied 
the '  Augustinus,'  without  being  able  to  discover  in  it  the  Five  Pro- 
positions censured  by  the  Pope ;  that,  nevertheless,  he  cordially 
acquiesced  in  their  condemnation,  and  was  ready  to  declare  them 
heretical  in  whatever  work  they  might  appear  without  exception ; 
including,  therefore,  the  writings  of  Jansenius.  He  protested 
that  in  making  the  statement  complained  of  he  had  not  in- 
tended anything  offensive  to  his  Holiness  or  the  French  pre- 
lates; he  humbly  craved  their  pardon  for  the  unintentional 
affront ;  and  he  submitted  that  at  all  events  such  a  statement 
of  opinion  could  not  be  brought  within  the  category  of  heresy. 

With  regard  to  the  point  of  doctrine,  Arnauld  made  consider- 
able concessions ;  in  a  letter  to  the  Bishop  of  St.  Brieux  he 
admitted  the  distinction  drawn  by  the  Thomists  between  the 


*  Gui  Putin,  Lettre  cclxxxiii.  torn.  ii.  p.  229. 


420 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  XII. 


different  kinds  and  degrees  of  grace,  acknowledging  that  by 
the  former  the  just  man  possesses  habitually,  and  as  it  were 
abstractedly,  the  power  to  keep  God's  commandments,  while 
the  latter,  efficacious  grace,  which  alone  moves  and  deter- 
mines the  will,  is  not  vouchsafed  to  all ;  notwithstanding  which, 
St.  Thomas  teaches  that  without  such  grace  no  man,  although 
regenerate  and  justified,  can  actually  perform  that  which  is 
good. 

After  eighteen  sittings  the  Faculty  came  to  a  vote  on  the 
question  of  fact  on  the  14th  of  January,  1656.  One  hundred 
and  twenty-four  doctors,  among  whom  were  forty  monks,  gave 
their  voices  for  the  censure  as  proposed  in  the  report ;  seventy- 
one  took  the  opposite  side ;  eleven  remained  neutral. 

The  Assembly  next  proceeded  to  discuss  the  question  of 
doctrine.  It  had  been  arranged,  in  order  to  avoid  needless  pro- 
lixty,  that  no  speaker  should  occupy  the  attention  of  the  house 
for  more  than  half  an  hour.  The  partisans  of  Arnauld  found 
it  difficult  to  conform  to  this  regulation;  and  the  Chancellor 
was  obliged  to  take  peremptory  measures  to  set  bounds  to 
the  torrent  of  their  eloquence.  Upon  his  no  less  than  sixty 
doctors,  after  signing  a  protest  against  the  infraction  of  their 
liberties,  left  the  hall  in  a  body,  and  never  appeared  afterwards 
at  the  meetings  of  the  Faculty.  Among  the  seceders  was  Jean 
de  Launoi,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  of  the  doctors  for 
talent,  erudition,  and  zeal  for  the  Gallican  liberties.  De  Launoi 
did  not  sympathize  altogether  with  the  school  of  Port  Royal ; 
but  the  harshness  and  unfairness  of  the  proceedings  against 
Arnauld  shocked  his  natural  uprightness  of  mind,  and  he 
generously  declared  himself  in  favour  of  the  injured  party. 
His  publications  on  this  occasion  are  specially  valuable,  not 
only  from  their  vigour  and  force  of  reasoning,  but  from  the 
complete  independence  of  the  author's  testimony.* 

The  final  vote  was  taken  on  the  29th  of  January,  when  the 
"  question  de  droit "  was  decided  against  Arnauld  by  an  im- 
mense majority — nearly  all  his  friends  absenting  themselves 
purposely  from  the  division.  His  doctrine  was  pronounced 
"  rash,  impious,  blasphemous,  and  already  branded  as  heretical ; " 


*  B.  Racine,  Hist.  Eccles.,  torn.  xi. 
Pt.  ii.  p.  356.  See  "  Joann.  Launoii 
Notationes  in  censuram  duarum  Anton. 


Arnaldi  Propositionnm,"  in  Arnauld's 
Works,  torn.  xx.  p.  348. 


A.D.  1656.  DEPRIVATION  OF  ARNAULD.  427 

and  it  was  ordered  in  consequence,  that  unless  be  should  make 
retractation  within  fifteen  days  by  subscribing  the  censure,  he 
should  be  degraded  from  the  rank  of  doctor  of  the  Sorbonne  and 
expelled  from  the  Society.  Nor  was  this  all.  The  sentence 
against  Arnauld  was  made  a  test  of  orthodoxy  for  the  future. 
All  persons  proceeding  to  the  degree  of  bachelor  and  doctor 
were  required  to  sign  the  censure  previously ;  and  any  member 
of  the  Faculty  who  should  preach,  teach,  maintain,  or  approve 
the  condemned  opinions,  was  declared  liable  to  the  same  penalty 
of  expulsion. 

Arnauld,  declining  to  give  the  required  satisfaction,  was 
accordingly  deprived  of  his  degrees;  and  the  sixty  doctors 
who  had  so  steadfastly  supported  him  throughout  the  contest 
suffered  a  like  punishment. 


428  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XIII. 


CHAPTEE    XIII. 

THE  field  was  lost  for  the  Port  Eoyalists;  but  their  leaders 
thought  it  possible  that,  by  means  of  a  skilful  diversion,  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  the  ground  from  which  they  had  been  driven 
might  be  recovered.  It  was  resolved  to  attempt  this  by  assail- 
ing with  the  shafts  of  satire — weapons  at  all  times  of  peculiar 
potency  in  France — the  most  vulnerable  points  of  the  enemy's 
position.  Such  was  the  object  of  the  '  Lettres  ecrites  a  un 
provincial  par  un  de  ses  amis,'  commonly  called  the  '  Provincial 
Letters ;'  the  first  of  which  appeared  on  the  23rd  of  January, 
1656',  while  the  question  of  Arnauld's  condemnation  was  still 
under  discussion  at  the  Sorbonne.  They  were  written  by 
Pascal,  at  the  instigation,  and  partly  with  the  assistance,  of 
Arnauld  himself.  At  first  they  were  published  without  any 
name ;  afterwards  the  author  assumed  that  of  Louis  de  Mon- 
talte.  The  "  provincial "  to  whom  they  were  addressed  was  M. 
Perier,  Pascal's  brother-in-law,  a  magistrate  of  the  Cour  des  aides 
at  Clermont. 

In  the  first  and  second  of  these  letters,  Pascal  ridicules  the 
technical  phrases  "  pouvoir  prochain  "  and  "  grace  suffisante  ; " 
which,  so  far  as  mere  phraseology  is  concerned,  were  perhaps 
fair  subjects  for  raillery.  They  expressed,  however,  important 
theological  truths ;  truths  involving  the  entire  discrepancy 
between  the  views  of  Jansenius  and  the  received  teaching  of  the 
Church.  That  man,  in  his  regenerate  state,  possesses  in  a 
certain  true  sense  the  power  or  capacity  of  keeping  the  Divine 
commandments,  was  almost  universally  acknowledged  among 
orthodox  Catholics  ;  though,  from  the  infirmity  which  still  re- 
mains in  our  nature,  that  power  is  not  always  carried  out  in 
action.  The  grace  which  gives  such  power  was  known  by 
various  names ; — "  adjutorium  sine  quo  non,"  "  gratia  possibili- 
tatis,"  "  grace  suffisante,"  "  grace  excitante,"  "  potential  grace." 
It  was  thus  distinguished  from  "  efficacious  grace,"  namely  that 
by  which  the  will  is  not  only  empowered,  but  moved  and  deter- 


A.D.  1656.  THE  'PROVINCIAL  LETTERS.'  429 

mined  to  the  actual  fulfilment  of  the  law.  This  distinction  was 
not  admitted  by  the  Jansenists ;  they  held  that  all  grace  which 
is  "  sufficient "  must  be  "efficacious  "  also  ;*  from  which  it  fol- 
lowed that  such  a  measure  of  grace  as  does  not  absolutely 
determine  the  will  is  not  sufficient  for  obedience  ;  so  that  when  a 
just  man  falls  into  sin,  he  has  no  power  to  avoid  it. 

The  particular  epithet  in  question  was  open  to  exception ; 
and,  in  the  hands  of  Pascal,  the  "  grace  suffisante  qui  ne  suffit 
pas  "  became  irresistibly  grotesque.  Yet  the  idea  is  not  really 
paradoxical,  though  it  has  that  appearance.  An  army  may  be 
sufficient,  in  point  of  numbers,  courage,  and  science,  to  reduce 
a  given  fortress;  but  it  does  not  follow  that  it  will  actually 
capture  it.  A  statesman  may  possess  sufficient  talent  and 
experience  to  lead  the  House  of  Commons;  but  it  does  not 
follow  that  he  will  in  fact  succeed  in  leading  it.  In  St.  Augus- 
tine's words,  "Non  est  consequens,  ut  qui  potest  venire,  etiam 
veniat,  nisi  id  voluerit  atque  fecerit."  t 

The  third  letter  is  an  indignant  protest  against  Arnauld's  con- 
demnation, which  had  at  length  been  published.  Pascal  de- 
nounces the  sentence  as  unjust,  preposterous,  and  nugatory, 
inasmuch  as  it  was  passed  under  coercion,  and  in  the  absence  of 
a  large  body  of  dissentients.  "  It  was  not  Arnauld's  opinions  that 
were  declared  heretical,  but  his  person;  it  was  a  personal 
heresy.  He  was  a  heretic,  not  on  account  of  what  he  had 
written,  but  solely  because  he  was  M.  Arnauld.  St.  Augustine's 
doctrine  of  grace  would  never  be  the  true  one,  so  long  as  it 
was  defended  by  Arnauld.  It  would  at  once  become  true  if 
he  happened  to  oppose  it.  Indeed  this  would  be  the  surest, 
perhaps  the  only,  way  to  establish  Augustinianism  and  to 
destroy  Molinisrn." 

These  three  earlier  letters,  together  with  the  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth,  which  conclude  the  series,  are  all  that  treat 
directly  of  the  Jansenistic  controversy.  In  the  fourth,  the 
argument  is  transferred  from  the  region  of  dogmatic  to  that 
of  moral  theology;  the  object  of  attack  being  the  system  of 
casuistry  practised  by  the  Jesuits.  This  is  criticised  with 
exquisite  wit  and  trenchant  force.  The  principle  upon  which 


*  See  Junseuius,  De  Gratia  Christi  Salvatons,  Lib.  iii.  cap  1. 
f  S.  Aug.,  De  Gratia  Christi,  Lib.  cap.  14. 


430  THE  GALL1CAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XIII. 

the  Society  acted  with  regard  to  the  use  of  the  Sacraments 
seems  to  have  guided  them  likewise  in  the  department  of 
Christian  morals ;  namely  that  of  softening  the  strictness 
of  the  Gospel  rule,  so  as  to  accommodate  it  to  the  habits  of 
ordinary  men  of  the  world.  That  rule,  under  their  treatment, 
acquired  an  amount  of  elasticity  which  made  it  practically 
indulgent  to  human  infirmity,  not  only  in  small  matters,  but 
to  a  dangerous  extent.*  Many  of  the  most  eminent  writers 
on  casuistical  divinity  in  the  latter  half  of  the  sixteenth  and 
beginning  of  the  seventeenth  centuries  were  Jesuits;  such  as 
Lessius,  Sanchez,  Bauny,  Emanuel  Sa,  Vasquez,  Suarez,  and 
Antonio  Escobar.  In  proportion  as  the  fame  and  influence  of 
the  Order  increased,  its  confessors  were  perpetually  brought 
into  contact  with  religious  doubts,  scruples,  perplexities,  and 
emergencies  of  every  description ;  and  were  thus  almost  com- 
pelled to  provide  themselves  with  a  code  of  ethics  embracing, 
so  far  as  it  was  possible  to  embrace,  all  the  numberless  problems 
and  minute  distinctions  of  moral  responsibility.  Nevertheless, 
it  must  be  recollected  that  the  science  of  casuistry  was  not  the 
invention  of  the  Jesuits.  In  their  hands,  no  doubt,  it  received 
an  extreme  and  in  many  respects  mischievous,  development. 
But  long  before  the  days  of  Loyola  this  was  accounted  an 
essential  branch  of  theological  study;  and,  indeed,  from  the 
moment  when  the  Church  enforced  auricular  confession  as  a 
universal  duty,  it  became  indispensable  to  the  clergy  in  the 
instruction  and  guidance  of  souls.  It  would  be  easy  to  produce 
a  long  list  of  Roman  divines  of  all  shades  of  opinion,  who 
have  devoted  themselves  to  the  examination  of  cases  of  con- 
science, and  have  published  professed  treatises  on  the  subject ; 
among  such  may  be  named,  as  altogether  unconnected  with 


*  Bossuet  passes  a  somewhat  severe  charges  de  son  poids,  vos  passions  in- 

censure  on  them  in  his  Oraison  Fun^bre  \  dompte's  ne  le   secouent   trop    facile- 

de  Nicolas  Cornet.     "  II  a  pris  a  quel-  meut ;  et  qu'ayant  rejete  le  j»ug,  nous 

ques    docteurs    une    malheureuse    et  ,   ne  marchions  indociles,  superhes,  indis- 

inlmmaine    complaisance,     une     pitie  cipliue's,  au   gre  de  nos  desirs   impe- 

meurtriere,  qui  leur  a  fait  porter  des  |    tueux."     He  deals  out  an  equal  mea- 

coussins  sous  les  coudes  des  pe'cheurs,  sure,  however,  to  divines  of  the  opposite 

chercher  des  convertures  a  leurs  pas-  school, — "qui  ont  tenu  les  consciences 

sions,  pour  condesceudre  a  leur  vauite,  captives  sous  des  rigueurstres-injustes; 

et  flatter  leur  ignorance  aflecte'e.  .  .  .  :   qui  ne  peuvent  supporter  aticune  fai- 

Vou3  done,  docteurs  relaclies,  puisque  !   blesse;    qui   traiuent  toujours    1  enfer 

1'Evangile   est  un  joug,  ne  le  rendez  apres  eux,   et  ne  fulminent  que   des 


pas  si  facile ;  de  peur  que  si  vous  etes 


anathemes." 


A.D.  1656.  PASCAL'S  'PROVINCIAL  LETTERS.'  431 

the  Jesuits,  Bartolomeo  Medina,  Dominic  Soto,  John  Nieder, 
and  Diego  Alvarez,  all  of  the  Order  of  Dominicans,  and  Miguel 
Salon,  an  Augustinian. 

The  theory  of  "  probabilism "  is  impeached  by  Pascal  in 
the  fifth  letter,  as  the  main  source  and  basis  of  the  corrupt 
morality  propagated  by  the  Jesuits.  According  to  this  system, 
it  is  lawful  to  follow  the  less  probable  opinion,  though  it  be 
the  less  sure,  provided  it  has  been  held  by  any  one  doctor  of 
high  repute  for  learning  and  piety.*  And  further,  a  doctor  is 
justified  in  giving  advice  which  is  contrary  to  his  own  con- 
viction, if  such  advice  has  been  sanctioned  by  other  doctors, 
whenever  it  appears  more  favourable  and  acceptable  to  the 
person  applying  for  direction.  Nay,  he  may  tender  an  opinion 
which  is  held  probable  by  some  eminent  divine,  even  when  he 
himself  is  persuaded  that  it  is  absolutely  false.f  In  like 
manner,  a  confessor  ought  to  absolve  a  penitent  who  follows 
a  probable  opinion,  although  personally  he  may  entertain  the 
contrary  sentiment.  To  refuse  absolution  in  such  a  case  would 
be  mortal  sin.  Pascal  goes  on  to  show,  in  a  series  of  instances, 
how,  with  the  help  of  this  ingenious  hypothesis,  the  plainest 
precepts  of  the  Divine  law  may  be  evaded,  and  excuses  may  be 
found  for  delinquencies  of  all  kinds.  Simony,  sacrilege,  usury, 
dishonesty,  robbery,  and  even  homicide  in  certain  cases,  are 
justified  on  this  slippery  principle. 

In  the  seventh  letter  the  casuists  are  attacked  with  refer- 
ence to  their  method  of  "directing  the  intention;" — a  species 
of  mental  chicanery  which  undermined  the  very  foundations  of 
social  faith  and  duty.  "  If  one  can  direct  the  mental  intention 
to  a  permitted  object,  one  may  act  in  whatever  way  is  most 
convenient  or  pleasant.  Thus  men  are  enabled  at  once  to 
satisfy  the  requirements  of  the  Gospel,  and  to  comply  with  the 
received  usages  of  worldly  life.  They  please  the  world  by 
their  conduct,  and  at  the  same  time  they  conform  to  the 

*  This  doctrine  is  attributed  to  San-  ,   significet  consulenti,  opinionem  a  qui- 

chez  and  to  Emanuel  Sa.  busdam   viris    doctis  tanquam   proba- 

t  This  is  cited  by  Pascal  as  if  from  bilem  defendi,  quam  proinde  sequi  ipsi 

the   Theologia  Moralis   of   the  Jesuit  liceat ;  quamvis  idem  doctor  cjusmodi 

Paul  Laymann ;    but  it  seems  to  be  i   sententium  speculative  falsam  esse  certo 

scarcely  a  fair  version  of  his  teaching.  !   sibi  persuadeat,  ut  proinde  ipsemet  in 

His  words  are  "  Imo  arbitror  nihil  a  !   praxi  earn  sequi  lion  possit." 

ratione  alieuum  fore,  si  doctor  consultus  ! 


432  THE  GALLIC  AN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XIII. 

primary  rule  of  the  Gospel  by  purifying  their  inward  inten- 
tions." This  is,  in  other  words,  that  most  pernicious  maxim, 
that  "  the  end  justifies  the  means ; "  which  has  become,  though 
somewhat  unfairly,  proverbially  identified  with  Jesuitry.  The 
same  sophism  is  used  by  the  casuists  to  defend  prevarication, 
lying,  perjury,  and  unfaithfulness  to  engagements  of  all  kinds ; 
for  "  no  promise  is  binding  when  one  has  not  the  inward  inten- 
tion of  becoming  bound  by  it." 

Pascal  describes,  in  the  ninth  and  following  letters,  other 
expedients  invented  by  the  casuists  for  making  the  way  of 
salvation  smooth  and  easy,  especially  as  regards  the  duties  of 
devotion.  He  quotes  from  a  manual  called  '  Le  Paradis  ouvert,' 
by  Father  Bauny,  rules  which  make  devotional  religion  to  con- 
sist chiefly  in  paying  homage  to  images  of  the  Virgin,  saying 
the  "  Petit  chapelet  des  dix  plaisirs  de  la  Vierge,"  pronouncing 
frequently  the  name  of  Mary,  desiring  to  build  more  churches 
in  her  honour  than  have  ever  been  built  by  all  the  monarchs 
in  the  world,  saying  to  her  "bon  jour"  and  "bon  soir"  every 
morning  and  evening,  and  repeating  every  day  the  "Ave 
Maria "  in  honour  of  the  "  heart  of  Mary."  Directions  are 
cited  which  tend  to  reconcile  with  the  law  of  Chiist  all  the 
vices  to  which  our  depraved  nature  is  most  prone — vanity, 
envy,  sloth,  luxury,  unchastity;  and  various  artifices  are  ex- 
posed by  which  the  discipline  of  the  confessional  may  be 
rendered  wholly  nugatory  in  the  case  of  persons  living  in 
habitual  sin. 

The  sixteenth  letter  is  devoted  to  a  refutation  of  the  calum- 
nies of  the  Jesuits  Meynier  and  Brisacier  against  the  com- 
munity of  Port  Royal,  whom  they  charged  with  denying  the 
Heal  Presence  in  the  Eucharist,  and  other  Calvinistic  heresies. 
Pascal  also  undertakes  to  vindicate  the  Abbe  de  S.  Cyran  and 
Antoine  Arnauld  from  the  imputation  of  bsing  in  league  with 
Geneva  and  the  Huguenots  for  the  destruction  of  the  Catholic 
iaith ;  noticing  especially  an  absurd  fable  called  the  "  Con- 
spiracv  of  Bourg-Fontaine,"  at  which  place  it  was  alleged  that 
the  Jansenist  leaders,  mysteriously  congregated  in  a  dark  wood, 
had  pledged  themselves  to  a  revolutionary  enterprise  which 
was  to  subvert  not  only  the  Roman  Church,  but  Christianity 
itself.  This  is  on  the  face  of  it  so  wildly  improbable,  that  it  is 


A.D.  1656.  PASCAL'S  '  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS.'  433 

needless  to  enter  on  an  examination  of  the  arguments  on  either 
side.* 

The  two  concluding  numbers — published  at  the  distance  of  a 
full  year  from  the  commencement  of  the  work,  and  addressed 
to  Father  Annat — revert  to  the  original  subject-matter  of  the 
Jansenist  controversy.     Pascal  now  lays   aside  his  sarcastic 
style,  and  embarks  on  a  lengthened  argumentation  with  the 
view  of  rebutting  the  charge  of  heresy  from  himself  and  his 
associates,  and  showing  that  the  Papal  censures  were  directed 
against  a  mere  chimera,  or,  at  all  events,  against  tenets  which 
had  never  been  held  by  the  Jansenists.     These  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  Letters  bear  marks  of  anxious  thought  and 
patient  labour;  the  latter  is  said  to  have  been  rewritten  no 
less   than   thirteen   times.     They   contain   many   passages  of 
majestic  eloquence,  entitling  their  author  to  take  eminent  rank 
among  the  masters  of  rhetoric.     Nor  are  they  to  be  despised  as 
specimens  of  learning ;  for  Pascal  produces  a  long  list  of  re- 
ferences to  Councils,  historical  precedents,  and  the  works  of 
standard  theologians,  to  prove  that  the  Pope  and  the  Church 
are  not  infallible  in  judging  of  matters  of  fact,  but  solely  in 
dogmatic  definitions   de  fide.     The   meaning  of  a  particular 
author,  he  contends,  is  simply  a  question  of  fad.     Upon  such  a 
point  the  Pope  may  be  mistaken ;  and  consequently  it  cannot 
be  heresy,  though  it  may  be  presumption,  to  differ  from  the 
opinion  propounded  by  his  Holiness.     The  Church  is  protected 
by  Divine  authority  in  the  exposition  of  the  whole  body  of 
revealed  doctrine — the   "faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints;" 
but  with  regard  to  other  matters,  not  affecting  revelation,  man- 
kind are  left  to  the  guidance  of  natural  intellect  and  reason. 
If  upon  such  subjects  the  Church  should  define  and  exact  any 
belief  as  exclusively  true,  she  wottld  be  exceeding  her  lawful 
powers,  and  imposing  upon  the  faithful  a  yoke  which  Grod  has 
never  sanctioned.     The  Jansenists,  then,  were  no  heretics  for 
merely  questioning  whether  Jansenius  did  or  did  not  entertain 
a  given  opinion.     This  is  not  a  point  of  theology,  but  of  his- 
torical fact ;  and  therefore  the  "  sense  of  Jansenius,"  now  so 
violently  debated,  is  in  reality  a  matter  of  indifference,  upon 


*  The  Abbe  Maynard,  however,  in  his  edition  of  the  Provinciates,  seems  more 
than  half-inclined  to  endorse  this  preposterous  fiction.    Tom.  ii.  p.  215. 

VOL.  I.  2   F 


434 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  XIII. 


which  men  are  fully  at  liberty  to  take  opposite  views,  as  they 
may  in  estimating  the  published  works  of  any  other  author. 

Pascal  inveighs  fiercely  against  the  attempt  of  Father  Annat 
to  identify  the  "  sense  of  Jansenius"  with  the  theory  of  the 
heresiarch  Calvin ;  quoting  various  passages  from  the  '  Augus- 
tinus'  to  the  effect  that  grace  may  always  be  resisted,  and 
that  the  human  will  has  at  all  times  the  power  to  consent  to 
the  suggestions  of  the  Divine  Spirit.*  He  also  insists  that  the 
Jansenistic  doctrine  as  to  the  efficacy  of  grace  is  one  and  the 
same  with  that  of  St.  Thomas  Aquinas ;  forgetting,  apparently, 
that  the  Thomists  distinctly  inculcated  the  "  gratia  sufficiens," 
whereas  in  one  of  the  earlier  '  Provinciales'  that  term  had 
been  satirized  without  mercy  and  scornfully  rejected. 

The  work  concludes  with  a  fervid  peroration,  charging  all 
the  scandal  of  the  existing  dissensions  on  the  Jesuits,  and  im- 
ploring them,  if  not  from  charity  towards  their  opponents,  at 
least  out  of  compassion  for  the  sufferings  of  the  Church  their 
mother,  to  exchange  their  persecuting  policy  for  one  of  con- 
ciliation and  peace. 

Such  is  a  brief  outline  of  this  celebrated  work;  which  has 
done  more  to  perpetuate  the  fame  of  Pascal  than  any  of  his 
scientific  or  philosophical  productions,  though  these  last  are  of 
far  weightier  calibre. 

The  immediate  success  of  the  Letters  was  almost  unex- 
ampled. A  dry  ecclesiastical  controversy,  hitherto  confined 
to  the  cloister,  the  schools,  and  the  Sorbonne,  suddenly  con- 
verted into  a  theme  for  plaisanterie  and  badinage,  was  a  spec- 
tacle inexpressibly  diverting  to  the  Parisian  mind.  Thousands 
in  different  classes  of  society,  who  up  to  this  time  had  viewed 
these  intricate  speculations  with  apathy  or  contempt,  found 
themselves  irresistibly  attracted  towards  them  now  that  they 
were  recommended  by  all  the  graces  of  a  faultless  style,  and 
accommodated  to  the  level  of  an  ordinary  intellect.  Public 
indignation  was  at  once  and  vehemently  excited  against  the 
Jesuit  moralists ;  and  as  a  natural  consequence,  a  temporary 
reaction  ensued  in  favour  of  the  persecuted  Jansenists.  Harsh 


*  This,  however,  was  understood  by 
Jansenius  and  his  followers  in  an 
abstract  sense ;  they  acknowledged  that 
the  will  is  able,  abstractedly,  to  resist 


the  agency  of  Divine  grace  ;  but  they 
denied  that  grace  is  ever  in  point  of 
fact  resisted.  See  Jansen,  l)e  Grat. 
Ckristi,  Lib.  ii.  capp.  24,  25,  27. 


A.D.  1656.         MIRACLE  OF  THE  "  SAINTE  EPINE."  435 

proceedings  had  been  commenced  against  them  by  the  Govern- 
ment just  before  the  appearance  of  the  'Provinciales;'  the 
nuns  of  Port  Royal  were  forbidden  to  add  to  the  number  of 
their  novices  and  boarders;  the  Solitaries  had  been  expelled 
from  their  retreat,  and  their  schools  abruptly  closed.  Further 
severities  were  averted  by  the  vigorous  castigation  administered 
to  their  enemies  by  Pascal ;  and  a  remarkable  incident  of  a 
different  kind,  which  occurred  at  this  critical  moment,  con- 
tributed not  a  little  to  re-establish  for  a  season  the  declining 
fortunes  of  the  Port  Royalists.  This  was  the  miracle  of  the 
"  Sainte  Epine." 

Among  the  "  pensionnaires,"  or  boarders,  at  Port  Royal  de 
Paris,  was  Marguerite  Perier,  a  girl  about  eleven  years  of  age, 
daughter  of  M.  Perier  the  magistrate  at  Clermont,  and  niece 
of  Blaise  and  Jacqueline  Pascal.  She  had  been  afflicted  for 
upwards  of  three  years  with  fistula  lacrymalis  in  the  left  eye. 
The  disease  was  of  a  virulent  character,  and  had  made  fearful 
ravages ;  the  bones  of  the  nose  and  palate  had  become  carious ; 
and  the  discharge  of  matter  from  the  wound  was  so  constant 
and  offensive  as  to  make  it  necessary  to  seclude  the  patient  in 
great  measure  from  the  other  inmates  of  the  house.  All 
medical  treatment  had  proved  unavailing.  The  child  grew 
worse,  and  it  was  arranged,  as  a  last  resource,  to  apply  the 
cautery,  though  the  surgeon  gave  but  slender  hope  of  a  suc- 
cessful result.  Meanwhile  the  sisterhood  received  from  an 
ecclesiastic  named  La  Poterie  a  precious  reliquary  containing 
a  portion  of  the  Crown  of  Thorns  which  pierced  the  head  of  the 
Redeemer.*  It  was  carried  in  procession  to  the  altar  of 
the  convent  chapel  on  the  24th  of  March,  1656,  being  the 
Friday  of  the  third  week  in  Lent.  The  nuns,  each  in  her  turn, 
kissed  the  sacred  relic ;  and,  when  the  pensionnaires  approached 
for  the  same  purpose,  their  governess,  Sister  Flavia,  desired 
Mademoiselle  Perier  to  commend  herself  to  God,  and  apply 


*  The  Crown  of  Thorns  was  pur- 
chased by  Louis  IX.  of  France  from 
Baldwin  II.,  Emperor  of  Constan- 
tinople. The  Sainte  Chapelle  was  built 
for  its  reception,  ami  it  was  deposited 
there  by  the  pious  monarch,  with  every 
mark  of  profound  veneration,  on  the 


served  in  the  Treasury  of  Notre  Dame, 
and  is  exposed  for  devotion,  together 
with  other  "instruments  of  the  Pas- 
sion," on  Good  Friday  every  year.  The 
two  thorns  in  the  possession  of  M.  de 
la  Poterie  were  given  to  him  by  Queen 
Mary  de  Medicis. 


21st  of  April,  1248.     It   is  still  pre- 

2   F   2 


436 


THE  GALLIC  AN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  XIII. 


the  reliquary  to  the  diseased  eye.*  She  did  so,  and  became 
conscious  of  a  complete  and  instantaneous  cure. 

Whether  on  account  of  the  strict  discipline  observed  during 
the  season  of  Lent,  or  from  some  other  unexplained  cause,  the 
occurrence  was  not  mentioned  in  the  convent  till  the  next  day, 
nor  was  it  generally  known  till  a  week  afterwards.  On  the 
31st  of  March,  the  surgeon,  M.  Dalence,  called  to  see  his 
patient.  Such  was  the  alteration  in  her  appearance,  that,  when 
she  entered  the  room,  he  did  not  recognize  her ;  and  it  was  not 
till  after  minute  examination,  and  on  the  most  positive  evidence 
of  her  identity,  that  he  was  at  length  convinced  that  a  cure  had 
taken  place,  which  he  did  not  hesitate  to  declare  supernatural. 
The  news  now  circulated  like  lightning  through  the  city.  The 
queen  despatched  her  own  surgeon  to  Port  Royal  to  verify  the 
facts ;  and  a  statement  was  drawn  up  by  him,  in  concert  with 
the  other  medical  witnesses,  attesting  the  reality  of  the  cure, 
and  pronouncing  such  a  phenomenon  to  be  beyond  and  above 
the  operation  of  mere  natural  causes.  Their  testimony  was 
confirmed  by  the  ecclesiastical  authorities ;  the  Grand  Vicars  of 
the  diocese,  in  the  absence  of  the  exiled  Archbishop,  published  a 
formal  recognition  of  the  truth  of  the  miracle.  Solemn  thanks- 
givings for  this  signal  mercy  were  offered  in  the  church  of  Port 
Royal ;  the  Holy  Thorn  was  presented  to  the  convent  in  per- 
petuity ;  it  was  exposed  every  Friday  for  the  veneration  of  the 
faithful ;  and  a  long  list  of  additional  instances  followed,  in 
which  its  healing  virtues  were  exerted  for  the  relief  of  the 
afflicted. 

In  every  point  of  view  the  miracle  of  the  "  Sainte  ^pine  " 
happened  opportunely  for  the  interests  of  Jansenism.  How 
could  Port  Royal  be  a  nest  of  heretics  when  Heaven  itself 
interfered  to  work  marvels  in  its  favour  ?  Was  not  the  arm  of 
the  Most  High  visibly  stretched  forth  to  protect  this  much 
maligned  community,  and  to  vindicate  its  orthodoxy  in  up- 
holding the  efficacy  of  His  sovereign  grace  ?  The  cause  of  Port 


*  I  have  followed  the  narrative  of 
Racine  aud  Du  Fosse.  According  to 
Jacqueline  Pascal's  aceount  it  was 
Sister  Flavia  herself  who  touched  the 
eye  of  her  pupil  with  the  reliquary. 
"  Ellememe  prit  la  saiuto  n  lique  ct 
1'y  appliqua.  sans  reflexion  neanmoins." 


She  adds  that  the  cure  was  discovered 
by  Sister  Flavia  the  same  evening,  and 
that  she  reported  the  fact  to  the 
Abbess ;  this  done,  they  waited  to  see 
whether  the  restoration  of  the  eye 
would  prove  permanent  and  perfect. 
V.  Cousin,  Jacqueline  Pascal. 


A.D.  1656.         MIRACLE  OP  THE  "  SAINTE  EPINE."  437 

Royal  was  demonstrated  to  be  the  cause  of  God ;  within  those 
walls  was  the  chosen  home  and  sanctuary  of  the  Truth.  Thus 
reasoned,  not  only  the  superstitious  multitude,  but  even  the 
intelligent  and  educated  classes ;  and  the  impression  produced 
upon  the  public  mind  was  such  that  the  Government  could  not 
venture  to  disregard  it.  The  decrees  which  had  gone  forth 
against  Port  Royal  were  hastily  revoked;  as  early  as  the 
month  of  May  Arnauld  d'Andilly  received  permission  to  return 
to  his  beloved  retreat  in  the  valley  of  Chevreuse ;  thither  he 
was  soon  followed  by  Antoine  Arnauld,  Nicole,  and  Antoine  Le 
Maitre ;  the  other  members  of  the  fraternity  reappeared  by 
degrees,  and  the  schools  were  ere  long  again  in  full  operation. 
Viewed  in  combination  with  the  extraordinary  result  of  the 
Provincial  Letters,  this  was  an  epoch  of  legitimate  triumph  for 
the  Jansenists.  Their  popularity  was  greatly  enhanced,  the 
number  of  their  disciples  multiplied ;  and,  although  their  oppo- 
nents by  no  means  slackened  in  activity,  the  minority  on  the 
whole  maintained  their  ground  with  success.  An  interval  of 
some  years  ensued,  during  which  they  were  not  molested  by 
any  further  measures  of  forcible  repression. 

Two  centuries  have  not  sufficed  to  settle  the  questions  arising 
from  this  singular  episode  of  ecclesiastical  history ;  those  ques- 
tions being,  in  the  first  place,  whether  the  cure  of  Marguerite 
Perier  was  real ;  and  if  real,  whether,  secondly,  it  was  supernatural. 
The  truth  is  that  questions  of  this  nature  can  seldom  be  posi- 
tively determined.  Except  by  minds  of  a  peculiar  bias,  "  eccle- 
siastical miracles  "  (as  they  are  called  to  distinguish  them  from 
those  recorded  in  Holy  Scripture)  will  always  be  regarded  with 
insurmountable  prejudice.  Persons,  not  otherwise  sceptically 
inclined,  will  reject  with  a  smile  of  contempt  the  notion  of 
supernatural  agency  as  manifested  in  the  Church  of  any  age 
subsequent  to  that  of  the  Apostles.  The  whole  stream  of 
Christian  history,  they  urge,  abounds  with  instances  both  of 
visionary  delusion  and  of  fraudulent  fabrication  for  unworthy 
ends ;  and,  under  such  circumstances,  the  weight  of  presumption 
against  the  genuineness  of  any  particular  miracle  is  all  but 
overpowering. 

Yet  surely  it  cannot  be  logically  maintained  that,  because 
the  miracles  of  our  Lord  and  His  Apostles  are  distinct  in 
character  from  those  ascribed  to  the  uninspired  ages,  therefore 


438  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XIII. 

these  latter  were  not  in  any  sense  manifestations  of  a  power 
beyond  and  above  nature.  Nor,  again,  because  we  find  in 
history  many  cases  of  spurious  miracles,  or  "pious  frauds," 
will  it  follow  that  all  modern  occurrences  involving  miraculous 
pretensions  are  to  be  consigned  to  the  same  category.  Nothing 
can  be  more  unphilosophical  than  to  found  our  opinions  on 
such  matters  on  mere  a  priori  assumption  or  arbitrary  preju- 
dice. The  true  is  to  be  discriminated  from  the  false  (in  points 
not  ruled  by  Infallible  Authority)  by  patiently  weighing  the 
force  and  value  of  conflicting  evidence,  by  scrutinizing  motives 
and  interests,  by  applying  the  tests  of  sound  and  enlightened 
criticism. 

The  prodigy  of  the  "  Sainte  lupine  "  is  supported  by  evidence 
which,  if  adduced  to  prove  any  ordinary  fact,  would  probably 
be  held  conclusive.  The  various  theories  suggested  for  ex- 
plaining it  on  merely  natural  grounds  are  scarcely  less  difficult 
to  accept  (some  of  them  are  more  so)  than  the  account  of  the 
Port  Royalists  themselves.  Is  it  conceivable,  for  instance,  that 
a  sister  of  Mademoiselle  Perier,  who  was  also  residing  in  the 
convent,  was  substituted  for  the  real  sufferer,  and  that  the 
medical  certificates  attesting  the  cure  were  thus  obtained  by 
means  of  a  gross  deception  ?  Or  again,  is  it  easy  to  believe, 
with  M.  Sainte  Beuve,*  that  the  application  of  the  reliquary 
was  made  with  so  much  force  as  to  burst  the  morbid  tumour, 
which  thereupon  dispersed  so  rapidly  as  to  leave  within  the 
space  of  a  few  days  no  trace  whatever  of  disease  ? 

Admitting,  however,  that  the  facts  of  the  case  are  well 
authenticated,  it  by  no  means  follows  that  the  Jansenists  were 
justified  in  the  inferences  which  they  drew  from  them.  They 
argued  that  such  an  event  not  only  marked  out  Port  Royal  as 
a  spot  singularly  privileged  by  Heaven,  but  also  that  it  esta- 
blished incontestably  the  truth  of  the  peculiar  doctrines  which 
Port  Royal  represented.  It  proved,  beyond  all  further  dispute, 
that  Jansenius  was  orthodox ;  that  Arnauld  was  innocent ;  that 
St.  Cyran  was  a  persecuted  saint ;  that  Innocent  X.  was  a  mis- 
guided tyrant ;  that  the  Sorbonne  was  a  conclave  of  benighted 
dotards.  Such  a  conclusion  was  simply  preposterous.  The 
miraculous  cure  (if  such  it  was)  testified  to  the  infinite  bene- 


*  Ste.  Beuve,  Port  Royal,  torn.  iii.  p.  111. 


A.D.  1656.        PROCEEDINGS  AGAINST  THE  CASUISTS.  439 

volence  of  that  Being,  whose  "tender  mercies  are  over  all 
His  works;"  but  it  were  mere  fanaticism  to  interpret  it  as 
a  decision  from  above,  on  one  side  or  the  other,  of  a  vexed 
question  in  polemical  theology. 

Father  Annat,  in  a  vigorous  pamphlet,  entitled  '  Kabat-joie 
des  Jansenistes,'  contested  the  genuineness  of  the  miracle, 
denied  the  consequences  deduced  from  it  by  the  Port  Eoyalists, 
and  even  maintained  that,  so  far  from  proving  anything  in 
their  favour,  it  was  rather  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  fresh,  call  to 
repent  of  their  heretical  aberrations.  To  this  an  anonymous 
reply  was  published,  which  is  attributed  to  Pascal,  and  inserted 
among  his  works;  but  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  he  was 
largely  assisted  by  the  Abbe  de  Pontchateau,  one  of  his  brother 
solitaries,  and  perhaps  by  others. 

Marguerite  Perier  (the  miraculee,  as  she  was  called  by  her 
friends)  survived  to  the  age  of  eighty-seven,  and  died  at  Cler- 
mont  in  the  year  1733,  preserving  to  the  last  an  immovable 
conviction  of  the  reality  of  the  restoration  wrought  by  the  Sainte 
Epine. 

The  storm  of  clamour  against  the  casuists — excited  by  the 
*  Provinciales ' — was  not  easily  appeased.  The  parish  priests 
of  Kouen,  at  a  meeting  held  on  the  28th  of  August,  1656,  de- 
nounced the  moral  teaching  of  the  Jesuits  to  their  Archbishop, 
De  Harlai.  That  prelate  referred  their  complaint  to  the  convo- 
cation of  clergy  then  sitting  at  Paris ;  and  upon  this  the  cures 
of  the  capital  came  forward  in  support  of  their  brethren,  and 
drew  up  a  list  of  forty  propositions,  extracted  from  the  works 
of  the  principal  casuists,  which  they  submitted  to  the  judgment 
of  the  Assembly.  A  committee  of  bishops  was  appointed  to 
report  on  it ;  but  the  synod  was  on  the  point  of  separating,  and 
there  was  no  time  to  enter  on  a  discussion  of  such  serious 
importance.  The  house  contented  itself  with  ordering  an  edition 
of  St.  Charles  Borromeo's  *  Instructions  to  Confessors '  to  be 
printed  at  its  expense,  and  circulated  in  every  diocese,  "  to  serve 
as  a  barrier  for  arresting  the  spread  of  novel  opinions  tending 
to  the  destruction  of  Christian  morals."  This  must  have  been 
mortifying  to  the  Jesuits,  since  it  was  well  known  that  Amauld's 
book,  *  De  la  frequente  Communion,'  was  derived  principally 
from  this  very  treatise  of  St.  Charles,  which  was  thus  recom- 
mended as  a  text-book  for  the  clergy  throughout  France. 


440  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XIII. 

But  the  contest  was  renewed  shortly  afterwards,  by  the 
appearance  of  an  unlucky  '  Apologie  pour  les  Casuistes  centre 
les  calomnies  des  Jansenistes,'  from  the  pen  of  the  Jesuit 
F.  Pirot.*  This  ill-judged  effusion  consisted  chiefly  of  vulgar 
ridicule  and  personal  abuse;  in  point  of  reasoning  it  was 
wretchedly  feeble ;  and  its  effect  was  to  injure  instead  of  further- 
ing the  cause  it  meant  to  advocate.  A  violent  outcry  arose 
against  it  from  all  parts  of  the  country.  The  cures  of  Paris  and 
Rouen  put  forth  a  series  of  factums  or  memorials  on  the  subject, 
which  were  composed  in  reality  by  the  Port  Royalists — Pascal, 
Arnauld,  Nicole,  and  Hermant,  being  the  principal  writers. 
The  *  Apology'  was  disavowed  officially  by  the  Jesuits,  according 
to  their  custom  in  such  emergencies.  They  declared  that  Pirot 
had  acted  on  his  own  responsibility,  contrary  to  the  advice  of 
his  superiors;  and  the  unfortunate  author  was  so  deeply  wounded 
by  this  treatment,  that  he  fell  into  a  lingering  sickness  which 
brought  him  to  his  grave.  His  work  was  referred  to  the  Sor- 
bonne,  and  was  condemned  by  that  body  in  July,  1658.  This 
was  followed  immediately  by  a  censure  from  the  vicars-general 
of  the  Archbishop  of  Paris ;  t  and  corresponding  measures  were 
taken  in  all  the  other  dioceses,  with  some  few  exceptions,  to 
express  the  strong  disapproval  with  which  the  French  clergy 
viewed  the  corrupt  principles  and  practices  complained  of.  The 
Bishops  of  Pamiers,  Alet,  Comminges,  Angers,  and  Vence,  all 
well  known  for  their  Jansenist  sympathies,  distinguished  them- 
selves by  strongly-worded  mandements  on  this  occasion.  In 
1659  the  '  Apology'  likewise  incurred  the  censure  of  the  Inqui- 
sition at  Rome. 

The  'Provinciales'  thus  enabled  the  Port  Royalists  to  turn  the 
tables  with  damaging  effect  on  their  opponents,  and  also  did 
good  service  to  the  Church  at  large  by  exposing  the  dangerous 
sophistries  of  false  teachers.  There  were,  however,  considerable 
deductions  from  the  completeness  of  this  triumph.  It  was 
felt  in  many  quarters,  that  although  individual  authors  might 
have  been  extravagant  and  reprehensible  in  treating  casuistical 
questions,  and  might  have  sanctioned  doctrines  of  an  injurious 


*  B.  Racine,  Hist.  Eccks.,  torn.  xiii. 
Pt.  ii.  Art.  xxxv. 

t  DC  Retz,  it  must  be  remembered, 
was  disposed  to  favour  the  Jansenistfl  ; 


and  the  administration  of  the  diocese, 
iu  his  absence,  was,  to  a  great  extent, 
under  their  influence. 


A.D.  1657.       CENSURE  OF  THE  'PROVINCIAL  LETTERS.' 


441 


tendency,  it  would  be  grossly  unjust  to  throw  the  blame  of  this, 
exclusively  and  undividedly,  upon  the  Jesuit  body.*     Casuistry 
was  not  a  science  peculiar  to  the  Jesuits,  although  it  was  true 
that  members  of  that  Society  had  cultivated  it  with  pre-eminent 
success.     The  charge  of  teaching  false  morality  might  be  sub- 
stantiated quite   as  easily  from   the  writings  of  Dominicans, 
Franciscans,  and  other  religious  schools,  as  from  those  of  the 
disciples  of  Loyola.     Considering  the  multitude  of  divines  who 
had   handled   the   subject   at  various  times   and  in   different 
countries,  it  would  be  strange  if  they  had  not  been  occasionally 
misled  into  erroneous  decisions ;  but  the  Jesuits,  as  an  Order, 
could  not  fairly  be  held  responsible  for  these  mistakes;  that 
Society  had  repudiated  and  condemned  them,  by  the  sentence 
of  its  highest  authority,  long  before  they  had  fallen  under  the 
lash  of  Port  Koyal.     It  was  alleged,  moreover,  that  in  numbers 
of  instances  the  author  of  the  '  Provinciales '  had  been  guilty  of 
misquotation,  mistranslation,  and  malicious  perversion  of  the 
true  sense  of  the  writings  which  he  criticized  ;  and  that  the  worst 
imputations  against  the  Casuists  were  founded  on  mere  frag- 
ments detached  from  their  context,  and  cited  in  that  form  solely 
for  the  sake  of  exciting  odium.     These  complaints,  which  were 
to  a  certain  extent  supported  by  clear  proof,  were  not  without 
weight  in  the  mind  of  the  more  calmly-judging  part  of  the 
community,  though  insufficient  to  counterbalance  the  general 
effect  of  Pascal's  inimitable  Letters.     The  feeling  against  them 
first  found  public  expression  in  a  decree  of  the  Parliament  of 
Aix,  in  Provence,  in  March,  1657,  which  stigmatized  the  volume 
as  "  full  of  calumnies,  falsehoods,  forgeries,  and  libels,"  and  con- 
demned it  to  be  burnt  by  the  executioner.     After  this,  several 
prelates  animadverted  upon  it  in  their  pastoral  addresses ;  and 
in  September,  1657,  it  was  branded  by  the  censure  of  the  Inqui- 
sition, and  placed  on  the  Index,  in  company  with  the  two  famous 
letters  of  Antoine  Arnauld.     Two  years  later  Pascal's  work, 
which  had  been  admirably  translated  into  Latin,  with  notes,  by 
Nicole,  under  the  assumed  name  of  Guillaume  Wendrock,  was 


*  An  unprejudiced  critic,  the  Pro- 
testant Schoell,  gives  the  following 
estimate  of  the  Prmnnciales  :  —  C'cst 
un  ouvrage  de  parti,  oil  la  muuvaise  foi 
attribuait  au  Jesuites  des  opinions  sus- 
peutcs  que  depuis  longtemps  ils  avaient 


blame'es,  et  qui  mit  sur  le  compte  de 
toute  la  Societe  certaines  extravagances 
do  quelques  Peres  Espagnols  et  Fla- 
mauds."  Cours  d'Histoire  des  Etats 
Europe'em,  vol.  xxviii.  p.  79. 


442 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  XIII. 


denounced  by  the  Parliament  of  Bordeaux ;  and  the  case  having 
been  argued,  the  court  determined,  before  giving  judgment,  to 
refer  the  book  to  the  Theological  Faculty  of  the  University  for 
its  opinion.  That  body,  after  due  examination,  pronounced  the 
Letters  of  Montalte  to  be  free  from  doctrinal  heresy,  and,  with 
regard  to  morals,  commended  them  in  the  highest  terms.  Upon 
this  the  Jesuits,  who  were  still  all-powerful  at  Court,  procured 
a  royal  ordonnance  naming  a  Commission  of  bishops  and  divines 
to  scrutinize  the  work  afresh ;  and  in  time  a  report  appeared, 
affirming  that  the  heresies  of  Jansenius,  already  condemned  by 
the  Church,  were  maintained  and  defended  in  the  Letters  of 
Montalte,  in  the  Notes  of  "Wendrock,  and  in  the  Disquisitions 
of  Paulus  Irenseus  (another  sobriquet  adopted  by  Nicole),  and 
that  accordingly  these  writings  had  justly  incurred  the  legal 
penalties  against  heretical  and  libellous  publications.  There- 
upon an  arret  of  the  Council  of  State  ordered  the  said  writings 
to  be  publicly  torn  and  burned  by  the  "Executeur  de  haute 
justice,"  which  sentence  was  carried  into  effect  on  the  14th  of 
October,  1660* 

Such,  however,  is  the  transcendent  power  of  genius,  that 
neither  royal  commissions,  nor  judicial  condemnations,  nor  even 
the  thunders  of  the  Vatican  itself,  prevailed  to  dethrone  the 
Provincial  Letters  from  their  lofty  place  in  popular  estimation. 
The  attempts  made  on  the  part  of  the  Jesuits  to  refute  them 
showed  so  decided  an  inferiority  of  intellectual  gifts,  that  for 
the  most  part  they  were  utter  failures.  The  only  apologist 
for  the  Order  who  seems  to  have  produced  any  impression  on 
the  public  mind  was  Father  Daniel,  author  of  the  well-known 
*  History  of  France ; '  who,  in  his  '  Entretiens  de  Cleanthe  et 
d'Eudoxe,'  written  in  1694,  exposed  with  considerable  force  the 
mistakes  and  unjust  imputations  into  which  Pascal  had  been 
betrayed.  This  book  was  eagerly  read,  the  whole  of  the  first 
edition  disappearing  almost  instantaneously.!  It  was  reprinted 
several  times,  and  was  translated  into  Italian  and  other  languages. 


*  D'Argentre,  Coll.  Jud.,  torn.  iii. 
p.  294.  B.  Kacine,  Hist.  Eccles.,  torn, 
xii.  Pt.  i.  Art.  21. 

t  "  La  reponse  aux  Provinciates  par 
le  P.  Daniel  Je'suite  a  ilisparu  quasi 
avant  que  de  paraitre.  Elle  ue  coutait 
que  50  sols,  et  Ton  clit  qu'on  a  offert 


d'en  rendre  un  louis  d'or  de  24  francs  a 
ceux  qui  1'avoient  achete,  s'ils  vonloient 
la  rendre.  On  a  dit  qu'on  n'a  paa 
voulu  la  laisser  paraitre,  choquante 
comme  elle  est  pour  M.  Nicole."  Bayle, 
(Euvres  Diverges,  torn.  iv.  p.  711. 


A.D.  1660.  PASCAL  ON  LE  DROIT  ET  LE  FAIT.  443 

The  style  was  judicious,  the  reasoning  powerful,  the  facts  adduced 
indisputable  ;  and  yet  all  these  recommendations  failed  to  secure 
a  permanent  triumph  over  such  an  antagonist  as  Pascal.  Father 
Daniel  established  beyond  contradiction  many  particular  instances 
of  misrepresentation,  exaggeration,  calumnious  aspersion,  and 
malicious  suppression  of  the  truth ;  but  of  the  multitudes  who 
had  laughed  over  the  libel,  not  one  in  a  thousand  ever  saw  the 
reply  by  which  it  was  demolished;  nor,  indeed,  could  it  be 
expected  that  cold,  sober,  unimpassioned  argument  should  undo 
the  effect  which  had  been  created  by  brilliant  wit  and  scathing 
sarcasm.  Hence  the  verdict  originally  pronounced  on  the  Pro- 
vincial Letters  by  the  generation  to  which  the  writer  addressed 
himself  has  never  since  been  reversed. 

Whether  the  theory  based  on  the  subtle  distinction  between 
the  "  droit "  and  the  "  fait "  was  ever  really  embraced  by  the 
singularly  candid  mind  of  Pascal  is  a  point  of  psychology  which 
we  have  no  means  of  determining  with  certainty.  It  is  probable 
that  on  first  embarking  in  the  controversy,  he  adopted,  without 
examination,  the  line  of  defence  devised  by  his  Jansenist  friends, 
conscious  that  he  was  not  sufficiently  well  versed  in  theology  to 
frame  a  system  for  himself.  But  it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that 
subsequently,  as  the  result  of  mature  thought,  he  was  led  to  a  very 
different  conclusion.  In  the  seventeenth  of  the  Provincial  Letters 
he  admits,  like  all  the  rest  of  the  party,  that  the  Five  Proposi- 
tions were  heretical  and  rightly  condemned,  but  denies  that  they 
expressed  the  opinions  of  Jansenius;  upon  this  latter  point, 
being  a  question  of  fact,  he  contends  that  it  is  lawful  to  demur 
to  the  decision  of  the  Holy  See,  since  the  gift  of  infallibility 
extends  only  to  matters  of  dogmatic  faith.  But  in  the  sequel 
he  abandoned  this  position  as  untenable ;  and  declared  that 
the  Vatican  had  condemned  the  doctrine  of  efficacious  grace,* 
which  was  undoubtedly  the  doctrine  of  Jansenius,  and  not 
only  of  Jansenius,  but  of  St.  Augustine  and  St.  Paul.  He  held, 
accordingly,  that  the  Popes  had  erred,  not  in  a  question  of  fact, 
but  in  an  article  of  faith :  that  they  had  condemned  an  essen- 
tial Christian  verity.  And,  in  consequence,  the  faithful  could 
not,  in  his  judgment,  accept  a  Formulary  which  solemnly  abjured 


*  This,  however,  was  a  mistake.  The  Papal  bull  did  not  condemn  the  efficacious- 
ness of  grace,  but  the  doctrine  that  it  cannot  bo  resisted. 


444  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XIII. 

all  that  the  Apostolic  See  had  condemned,  without  expressly 
excepting  the  so-called  "sense  of  Jansenius"  as  to  the  Five 
Propositions.  This  change  of  sentiment  placed  Pascal  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  Port  Koyalists,  and  caused  a  certain  coldness  and 
estrangement  between  them.  Various  explanatory  statements 
were  exchanged,*  but  Pascal's  views  were  now  those  of  sincere 
personal  conviction,  and  he  maintained  them  unflinchingly  to  the 
end.  His  sister  Jacqueline  (Soeur  St.  Euphemie),  a  person  of 
eminent  saintliness  of  mind  and  character,  had  discovered,  as 
she  conceived,  the  true  force  of  the  Papal  decision  before  it 
became  apparent  to  her  brother ;  hence  the  famous  Formulary, 
which  was  imposed  on  the  Church  in  1660  as  an  anti-Jansenist 
test,  was  to  her  an  object  of  conscientious  and  profound  abhor- 
rence. Yielding,  after  a  long  struggle,  to  the  authority  and 
specious  reasoning  of  her  spiritual  guides,  the  noble-minded 
Jacqueline  subscribed  the  Formulary  in  July,  1661 ;  but  the 
mental  distress  occasioned  by  this  act,  and  the  remorse  which 
followed,  rapidly  undermined  her  health,  and  on  the  4th  of  Oc- 
tober in  the  same  year  she  sank  into  the  grave.  This  tragical 
end  of  a  sister  to  whom  he  was  tenderly  attached  made  an  inef- 
faceable impression  upon  Pascal,  and  no  doubt  shortened  his  own 
life.  A  scene  of  ostensible,  but,  as  it  would  seem,  incomplete, 
reconciliation  with  Arnauld  and  Nicole  took  place  in  his  dying 
chamber ;  and,  without  retracting  his  dissent  from  the  authori- 
tative sentence  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  Pascal  expired  on  the 
19th  of  August,  1662.  But  we  are  anticipating  the  order  of 
events. 


GEuvres  de  Pascal,  torn.  iii.  p.  607. 


A.D.  1656.          THE  CLERGY  AND  THE  FORMULARY.  445 


CHAPTEE    XIV. 

THE  Assembly  of  the  French  clergy,  judging  it  needful  to  take 
measures  for  enforcing  submission  to  the  Papal  bulls  against 
Jansenism,  adopted  that  of  a  Formulary,  to  be  signed  by  all 
ecclesiastics  and  religious  houses.  Such  a  proceeding  was  one 
of  questionable  wisdom,  and  could  only  be  justified  by  the 
extreme  urgency  of  existing  circumstances.  It  was  defended 
on  the  ground  of  the  necessity  of  withstanding  the  insubor- 
dination of  the  recusant  party,  and  as  a  safe-guard  against 
schism  in  the  National  Church,  which  there  seemed  too  much 
reason  to  apprehend.  Its  effects,  however,  as  we  shall  see, 
were  to  prolong  and  exasperate  the  already  passionate  strife  of 
parties. 

The  task  of  drawing  up  the  Formulary  was  entrusted  by 
the  synod  of  1G56  to  Pierre  de  Marca,  Archbishop  of  Toulouse, 
the  distinguished  author  of  the  treatise  *  De  Concordia  Sacer- 
dotii  et  Imperii.'  That  prelate  prepared  a  draft  accordingly, 
which  was  approved  by  the  Assembly ;  and  information  of  the 
proposed  step  was  immediately  despatched  to  Eome.  Alexander 
VII.  replied  by  the  bull  "  Ad  sacram,"  dated  October  16th,  1656, 
which  confirmed  those  of  his  predecessor,  and  denounced  as 
"  disturbers  of  public  peace  and  children  of  iniquity "  those 
who  pretended  that  the  Five  Propositions  were  not  to  be  found 
in  Jansenius.  Alexander  declared,  moreover,  that  the  Propo- 
sitions were  condemned  in  the  sense  of  Jansenius  ; — "  in  sensu 
ab  eodem  Cornelio  intento."  This  bull  was  not  received  by 
the  French  synod  till  the  17th  of  March,  1657;  when  it  was 
resolved  to  modify  the  form  of  subscription,  so  as  to  include 
the  latest  communication  from  the  Holy  See.* 

The  following  were  the  terms  finally  agreed  upon: — "I, 
the  undersigned,  do  submit  sincerely  to  the  constitution  of 
Pope  Innocent  X.,  of  the  31st  May,  1653,  according  to  its  true 


*  Mtfrnofres du  deride  France,  torn.  i.  p.  312. 


446  THE  GALLIC  AN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XIV. 

signification,  which  has  been  determined  by  the  constitution  of 
our  Holy  Father  Pope  Alexander  VII.,  of  the  16th  of  October, 
1656.  I  acknowledge  myself  bound  in  conscience  to  obey 
these  constitutions,  and  I  condemn  with  heart  and  mouth  the 
doctrine  of  the  Five  Propositions  of  Cornelius  Jansenius,  con- 
tained in  his  book  entitled  '  Augustinus,'  which  has  been 
condemned  by  the  two  Popes  and  by  the  bishops ;  the  said 
doctrine  being  not  that  of  St.  Augustine,  but  a  misinterpreta- 
tion of  it  by  Jansenius,  contrary  to  the  meaning  of  that  great 
doctor." 

At  the  request  of  the  Assembly  a  Koyal  message  was  sent 
to  the  Parliament,  directing  them  to  register  the  bull  "Ad 
sacram,"  and  announcing  at  the  same  time  that  all  ecclesiastics 
would  be  expected  to  subscribe  the  Formulary  within  the  space 
of  a  month.  Corresponding  instructions  were  forwarded  to  the 
provincial  Parliaments ;  and  the  tribunals  were  forbidden  to 
entertain  any  appeal  comme  d'abus  which  might  be  presented 
on  this  subject.  Lastly,  a  circular  letter  from  the  Assembly 
to  the  members  of  the  French  episcopate  exhorted  them  to 
enforce  conformity  with  these  regulations  in  their  several 
dioceses. 

The  bull  of  Pope  Alexander  was  accordingly  published 
throughout  France,  and  the  prescribed  notice  given  with  regard 
to  the  subscription  of  the  Formulary.  But  the  bishops  uni- 
versally abstained  from  insisting  on  a  literal  application  of 
the  test.  The  vicars-general  of  the  diocese  of  Paris,  who,  as 
already  noticed,  were  partisans  of  the  Jansenists,  openly  im- 
pugned the  Formulary  as  containing  falsehoods  and  absurdi- 
ties; and  re-echoed  the  hackneyed  arguments  by  which  their 
friends  had  so  long  striven  to  evade  the  plain  meaning  of  the 
Papal  decrees.  The  Government  did  not  interpose  to  press  com- 
pliance; and  the  result  was  that  the  Formulary  remained  a 
dead  letter  for  upwards  of  three  years. 

The  publication  of  the  bull  "  Ad  sacram  "  added  seriously  to 
the  difficulties  of  the  Jansenist  position.  Hitherto  it  had  been 
pleaded  that  the  Five  Propositions  did  not  express  the  senti- 
ments of  Jansenius;  that  his  teaching  was  none  other  than 
that  of  St.  Augustine,  which  the  Pope  himself  had  declared  to 
be  untouched  by  the  decision ;  and  that,  in  consequence,  the 
doctrine  of  Jansenius  had  not  been  condemned  at  all.  But 


A.D.  1657.  THE  CLERGY  AND  THE  FORMULARY.  447 

this  ground  could  no  longer  be  maintained;  it  was  now  dis- 
tinctly ruled  that  the  Propositions  were  condemned  in  the  very 
sense  in  which  Jansenius  held  and  published  them.  Hence, 
if  it  should  be  made  compulsory  to  sign  a  Formulary  embo- 
dying this  statement,  the  only  choice  open  to  the  Jansenists 
would  lie  between  rejecting  the  authoritative  judgment  of  the 
Apostolic  see,  and  subscribing  what  they  believed  in  their  con- 
sciences to  be  untrue.  Antoine  Arnauld,  perplexed  by  this 
dilemma,  gave  vent  to  his  feelings  in  a  pamphlet  which  he  en- 
titled '  Gas  propose  par  un  docteur,  touchant  la  signature  de  la 
Constitution  d'Alexaudre  VII.,  et  du  Forinulaire  du  ClergeV 
It  was  addressed  to  Nicolas  Pavilion,  Bishop  of  A  let,  whom 
the  writer  professed  to  consult  for  the  removal  of  his  scruples ; 
but  it  would  seem  that  in  reality  his  mind  was  already  made  up 
as  to  the  course  to  be  pursued. 

The  following  questions  were  propounded  for  solution : — First, 
whether  a  divine  hitherto  firmly  convinced  that  the  Propositions 
are  not  in  Jansenius,  and  are  not  condemned  in  the  sense  of  that 
writer,  is  bound  to  change  his  opinions  in  consequence  of  the 
Papal  bull  and  the  deliberations  of  the  clergy  of  France  ?  Se- 
condly, whether  the  same  divine,  still  retaining  his  persuasion 
that  Jansenius  has  taught  no  other  doctrine  than  that  of  St. 
Augustine,  can  nevertheless  subscribe  the  Formulary  ?  Lastly, 
whether  it  is  allowable,  considering  all  the  circumstances,  to 
preserve  a  respectful  silence  with  regard  to  the  bull,  under 
the  impression  that  the  Pope  may  have  been  misinformed  as 
to  the  matter  of  fact  involved  in  the  charge  against  Jansenius  ? 

Replying  to  his  own  inquiries,  Arnauld  decided  the  two 
former  points  in  the  negative,  the  latter  in  the  affirmative. 
The  Bishop  of  Alet,  however,  took  the  opposite  view  of  the 
case ;  and  expressed  himself  of  opinion,  to  the  great  surprise 
of  the  Jausenists,  that  the  individual  in  question  not  only 
might  subscribe  the  Formulary,  but  ought  to  do  so,  notwith- 
standing his  conviction  of  the  orthodoxy  of  Jansenius;  since 
the  authority  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  must  override  all  private 
sentiments,  and  although  a  clear  distinction  existed  between 
matters  of  fact  and  articles  of  faith,  in  the  case  of  Janseuius 
the  two  questions  were  so  closely  interwoven,  that  it  would 
not  be  wise  or  safe  to  separate  them. 

Arnauld  rejected  this  unpalatable  advice,  and  pursued  the 


448  THE  GALLTCAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XIV. 

discussion.  In  a  second  letter  to  the  Bishop  he  urged  that  the 
submission  due  to  the  Holy  See  must  be  limited  by  the  claims 
of  reason,  which  God  has  manifestly  given  for  our  direction  in 
all  important  enquiries.  He  was  convinced,  by  irresistible 
evidence,  that  the  Pope  had  acted  under  a  misapprehension  of 
facts  in  the  condemnation  of  Jansenius.  How  then  could  he 
be  expected  to  accept,  contrary  to  the  dictates  of  his  own  reason, 
a  conclusion  which  he  knew  to  be  founded  upon  erroneous  pre- 
mises ?  Upon  a  question  of  simple  fact  the  Pope  had  no  right 
to  claim  infallibility ;  inasmuch  then  as  the  judgment  in  this 
case  was  not  infallible,  it  was  sufficient  to  submit  to  it  in 
silence,  retaining  at  the  same  time  his  own  conscientious  con- 
viction, which  indeed  it  was  impossible  to  alter. 

The  Bishop  of  Alet,  a  man  of  remarkable  honesty  and  im- 
partiality of  mind,  was  much  impressed  by  these  considerations. 
He  resolved  to  devote  himself  to  a  still  deeper  investigation  of 
the  questions  at  issue ;  and  this  scrutiny  resulted  in  an  import- 
ant change  of  sentiment  as  to  the  objections  raised  by  Arnauld, 
and  in  general  as  to  the  relative  position  of  the  contending 
parties,  From  that  time  forward  Pavilion  was  one  of  the  most 
energetic  and  unfaltering  defenders  of  the  Jansenist  cause. 


Yet  the  ground  thus  taken  by  the  Jansenists,  if  examined  dis- 
passionately, must  be  pronounced  evasive  and  fallacious.  The 
Pope,  on  their  hypothesis,  was  infallible  in  matters  of  faith,  but 
fallible  in  questions  of  fact;  and  whether  Jansenius  had 
broached  a  certain  doctrine  in  a  particular  work,  they  main- 
tained to  be  purely  a  question  of  fact. 

But  this  theory  may  be  taxed  with  inconsistency.  If  the 
supreme  Pontiff  be  infallible  in  defining  dogma,  he  must  be 
able  to  declare  with  equal  certainty  that  such  and  such  dogmas 
are  laid  down  in  a  given  volume ;  for  this  may  happen  to  be 
the  very  hinge  upon  which  an  entire  controversy  turns ;  and  in 
the  case  of  the  Five  Propositions  it  was  actually  so. 

If  the  Pope,  though  doctrinally  incapable  of  error,  may  at  the 
same  time  misapprehend  the  sense  of  the  writings  upon  which 
his  decision  is  sought,  it  is  difficult  to  perceive  in  what  his  infal- 
libility consists.  How  can  he  decide  questions  of  dogma,  unless  he 
can  also  interpret  works  which  treat  of  dogma  ?  To  pretend  that 
the  interpretation  of  such  works  is  a  question  of  fact  as  opposed 


A.D.  1657.  THEOKY  OF  PAPAL  INFALLIBILITY.  449 

to  one  of  doctrine,  is  a  mere  abuse  of  language.  These  are 
not  ordinary  facts,  but  facts  which  are  involved  of  necessity  in 
controversies  of  faith ;  and  with  respect  to  such  facts,  it  is  plain 
that  either  the  Pope  must  be  able  to  pronounce  unerringly, 
or  that  he  is  not  infallible  at  all.  No  one,  of  course,  pretended 
that  the  Pope  can  judge  of  any  private  ideas  or  purposes  which 
a  man  tnay  secretly  cherish  in  his  own  mind.  An  author  may 
possibly  believe  the  very  contrary  to  that  which  he  has  ex- 
pressed in  words ;  but  the  Church  is  concerned  only  with  the 
natural  legitimate  sense  of  his  published  language ;  and,  on 
Eoman  principles,  it  must  be  competent  to  the  Pope,  acting 
as  the  organ  of  the  Church,  to  determine  whether  certain 
opinions  have  actually  been  broached,  and  whether  they  are  or 
are  not  in  accordance  with  the  Rule  of  Faith.  If  every  one 
whom  Rome  condemns  could  excuse  himself  by  alleging  that 
the  Pope  has  misunderstood  him,  and  that  in  point  of  fact  he 
never  entertained  such  sentiments,  it  would  follow  that  the 
judicial  functions  of  the  Papal  Chair  must  in  course  of  time  be 
altogether  superseded.  Heresy  might  be  perpetually  condemned, 
and  heretics  might  nevertheless  persist  in  propagating  the  self- 
same errors,  on  the  pretext  that  their  real  opinions  were  totally 
distinct  from  those  specified  in  the  censure. 

Whether  it  be  true  that  the  Pope,  as  an  individual,  possesses 
the  power  of  deciding  in  the  name  of  the  Church,  without  the 
assistance  and  consent  of  a  General  Council,  is  another  question, 
which,  however  momentous,  does  not  enter  into  the  case  before 
us ;  since,  as  before  observed,  the  Jansenists  professed  to  acknow- 
ledge the  Papal  infallibility  in  judgments  de  fide.  Thus  they 
occupied  a  false  position ;  and  as  the  controversy  proceeded,  it 
became  more  and  more  evident  that  their  system  tended  logically 
to  the  denial  of  a  doctrine  which  in  words  they  affected  to 
maintain,  the  infallibility  of  the  Holy  See. 

This,  however,  makes  it  none  the  less  a  matter  of  regret  that 
the  French  clergy  should  have  taken  so  ill-judged  a  course  in 
framing  and  enforcing  the  Formulary.  Such  a  policy  under 
such  circumstances  could  have  but  one,  and  that  a  calamitous, 
issue.  The  Jesuits,  to  whose  counsels  it  was  chiefly  due,  had 
abundant  reason  to  lament  in  the  sequel  a  measure  of  which  the 
ultimate  reaction  fell  with  disastrous  weight  upon  themselves. 

The  appearance  of  a  circular  letter  from  Cardinal  de  Retz, 

VOL.  I.  2  o 


450  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XIV. 

who  from  his  retreat  at  Rome  intrigued  incessantly  for  the  pur- 
pose of  obtaining  favourable  terms  of  accommodation,  incensed 
the  Government  afresh  against  the  Jansenists  in  the  course  of 
the  year  1660.*  The  offending  document  was  attributed  to 
Arnauld ;  and  if  not  actually  penned  by  him,  there  is  no  doubt 
that  in  substance  it  was  inspired  by  Port  Royal.  Hence 
Mazarin  made  it  a  pretext  for  insisting  on  the  execution  of 
the  harsh  enactments  against  the  recusant  party.  On  the 
meeting  of  the  Assembly  in  December,  1660,  the  three  presiding 
prelates  were  summoned  to  the  Louvre,  where  the  young  king 
informed  them  that,  for  the  advancement  of  the  glory  of 
God,  the  repose  of  his  subjects,  and  his  own  salvation,  he  was 
resolved  to  extirpate  Jansenism  from  his  dominions ;  and  en- 
joined them  to  concert  with  their  brethren  the  means  which 
they  might  deem  most  effectual  for  the  accomplishment  of  this 
pious  purpose.  In  compliance  with  this  expression  of  the  royal 
will,  the  Assembly  passed  a  vote  on  the  1st  of  February,  1661, 
by  which  the  signature  of  the  Formulary  was  made  absolutely 
obligatory  upon  the  whole  clergy  secular  and  regular,  upon 
members  of  religious  Orders,  nuns  as  well  as  monks,  and  even 
upon  directors  of  colleges  and  schools. 

On  the  13th  of  April  this  resolution  was  confirmed  by  an 
arret  of  the  Council  of  State ;  and  Louis  added  a  circular  letter 
to  the  bishops,  exhorting  them  to  carry  into  immediate  execu- 
tion the  measures  prescribed  by  the  Assembly.  A  letter  to 
the  same  effect  was  sent  to  the  Sorbonne,  and  was  obeyed 
without  hesitation ;  the  Faculty  ordered  that  the  Formulary 
should  be  subscribed  by  all  doctors  and  bachelors  of  theology, 
and  by  all  candidates  for  degrees. 

Cardinal  Mazarin  did  not  live  to  see  the  result  of  these 
unwise  proceedings.  After  a  tenure  of  supreme  power  which 
had  lasted,  with  very  brief  intervals,  for  eighteen  years,  he 
expired  on  the  9th  of  March,  1661 ;  leaving  behind  him  a  repu- 
tation which  ill  became  his  exalted  station  in  the  Church.  As 
he  had  always  shown  himself  decidedly  hostile  to  the  Jansenists, 


*  In  this  letter  De  Retz  indulged  in  I   willingness  to  add  to  the  difficulties  of 

bitter  invectives  against  Mazarin,  and  the   Stale  during  the  war.     This  was 

hinted  that,  if  justice  were  still  denied  supposed  to  point  to  an  interdict  upon 

him,  he  should  be  compelled  to  resort  j    the  diocese  of  Paris    M^moires  de  Joty, 

to  extreme    measures,   which   he  had  torn.  i. 
hitherto  forborne  to  employ,  from  un- 


A.D.  1661.          RELIGIOUS  POLICY  OF  LOUIS  XIV.  451 

they  imagined  at  first  that  his  death  might  turn  to  their  advan- 
tage ;  but  a  very  short  time  sufficed  to  dispel  this  illusion. 
They  had  an  enemy  in  the  highest  quarter. 

The  circumstances  of  his  education,  and  the  traditions  of  the 
administration  of  Eichelieu,  had  inspired  Louis  XIV.  with  a 
strong  antipathy  to  Jansenism,  which  he  had  learned  to  regard 
in  the  light  of  an  organized  opposition  to  his  authority.  Accord- 
ingly, it  became  plain,  from  the  moment  when  he  took  the 
government  into  his  own  hands,  that  if  there  was  one  principle 
of  policy  upon  which  he  was  more  determined  than  another,  it 
was  the  complete  humiliation  and  extinction  of  this  disaffected 
party  in  the  Church.  One  of  his  first  acts  was  to  appoint  a 
"  council  of  conscience,"  as  it  was  called,  to  which  he  entrusted 
the  chief  management  of  ecclesiastical  affairs,  including  the 
presentation  to  vacant  bishoprics  and  benefices.  The  persons 
who  composed  this  board  were  Pierre  de  Marca,  Archbishop  of 
Toulouse ;  Hardouin  de  Perefixe,  then  Bishop  of  Rodez  and  after- 
wards Archbishop  of  Paris;  and  Father  Annat,  the  king's 
Jesuit  confessor.  The  selection  of  such  names  was  a  tolerably 
clear  intimation  to  the  friends  of  Port  Royal  of  the  treatment 
they  might  expect  for  the  future. 

It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  the  Formulary  would  be 
acquiesced  in  by  the  Jansenists  without  a  desperate  resistance. 
Loud  complaints  were  made  in  various  quarters  against  the 
Assembly,  for  having  exceeded  the  bounds  of  its  authority  in 
framing  a  new  confession  of  faith,  and  dictating  to  the  bishops 
in  the  administration  of  their  dioceses.  Under  pretence  of 
upholding  the  discipline  of  the  Church,  such  a  proceeding,  it 
was  urged,  subverted  its  most  fundamental  principles.  Others 
declared  that  the  signature  of  the  Formulary  would  involve  an 
act  of  positive  heresy ;  since,  in  condemning  Jansenius,  it  con- 
demned by  implication  St.  Augustine,  and  thus  opened  the  door 
to  all  the  errors  of  Pelagianism.  The  Vicars-general  of  the 
diocese  of  Paris,  though  not  venturing  openly  to  contravene  the 
orders  of  the  Sovereign,  published  an  ordonnance  for  the  signa- 
ture which  differed  considerably  from  the  form  drawn  up  by  the 
Assembly.  They  alleged  that  the  only  question  discussed  at 
Rome  was  whether  the  Five  Propositions  were  in  themselves 
orthodox,  or  the  contrary  ;  and  hence  they  concluded  that,  with 
regard  to  the  "  fact  of  Jansenius,"  nothing  more  was  requisite 

2  o  2 


452  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  Xl\7. 

than  a  respectful  acceptance  of  the  Papal  constitutions.  This 
was  virtually  to  recognize  the  validity  of  the  Jansenist  distinc- 
tion between  the  fait  and  the  droit ;  and  was  therefore  a  mere 
evasion  of  the  meaning  of  the  Formulary.  The  Assembly  of 
the  Clergy  denounced  this  document  to  the  king,  and  his 
Majesty,  having  caused  it  to  be  examined  by  certain  prelates, 
declared  it  null  and  void,  as  contrary  to  the  decisions  of  the 
Holy  See,  and  ordered  it  to  be  revoked.  The  parochial  clergy  of 
Paris,  on  the  other  hand,  published  an  official  statement  testi- 
fying that,  so  far  from  causing  offence,  the  mandement  had 
been  received  with  feelings  of  gratitude  and  edification  by 
themselves  and  the  faithful  to  whom  they  ministered. 

The  Vicars-general  appealed  to  Rome ;  and  Alexander  re- 
sponded on  the  1st  of  August  by  a  brief  rebuking  them  strongly 
for  having  advanced  a  manifest  falsehood,  in  saying  that  the 
question  of  the  authorship  of  Jansenius  had  not  been  examined 
or  decided  at  Rome.  The  Pope  commanded  them  to  revoke 
their  mandement  as  soon  as  they  received  his  brief,  under  pain 
of  the  heaviest  censures.  After  some  hesitation,  they  obeyed ; 
and  issued  on  the  31st  of  October  a  second  ordonnance,  in 
terms  precisely  conformable  to  the  resolution  of  the  Assembly  ; 
requiring  the  signature  of  the  Formulary  "pure  et  simple," 
without  any  attempt  to  distinguish  between  the  droit  and  the 
fait. 

The  Court,  instigated  by  the  Jesuits,  now  commenced  a 
relentless  persecution  of  the  two  convents  of  Port  Royal.  In 
April,  1661,  an  armed  force,  headed  by  the  lieutenant-civil, 
expelled  from  both  houses  the  pensioners,  novices,  and  pos- 
tulants, and  ordered  that  none  should  be  admitted  for  the 
future.  A  lettre  de  cachet  was  signed,  banishing  Singlin,  the 
director,  to  Quimper  in  Brittany ;  but  timely  notice  having 
been  forwarded  to  him,  he  escaped  before  it  could  be  executed. 
A  new  Superior  and  confessor  was  imposed  on  the  two  commu- 
nities, and  installed  by  the  Grand  Vicar  on  the  17th  of  May. 
Two  priests  were  appointed  to  act  under  him,  belonging  to  the 
Seminary  of  S.  Nicolas  du  Chardonnet,  an  institution  notoriously 
adverse  to  the  Jansenists.  The  schools  of  Port  Royal,  which 
had  acquired  such  celebrity  under  the  management  of  Lan- 
celot, Nicole,  Le  Maitre,  and  Floriot,  were  at  the  same  time 
finally  closed. 


A.D.  1661.    THE  FOKMULARY  ENFORCED  AT  PORT  ROYAL.     453 

The  next  stroke  was  to  compel  the  unfortunate  nuns  to  sub- 
scribe the  Formulary.  It  was  tendered  to  them  in  the  first 
instance  in  the  terms  of  the  mandement  originally  issued  by  the 
Vicars-general ;  which,  indeed,  had  been  composed  chiefly  with 
a  view  to  facilitate  the  acceptance  of  the  test  by  their  party. 
The  sisters  of  the  Paris  convent  signed  without  much  diffi- 
culty ;  but  at  Port  Eoyal  des  Champs  the  struggle  was  pain- 
fully severe.  Many  of  its  inmates  felt  that  they  could  not 
comply  without  violating  the  plain  dictates  of  conscience; 
they  were  incompetent  to  decide  for  themselves  the  merits 
of  the  questions  in  dispute ;  and  they  were  sorely  perplexed 
by  a  division  of  opinion  which  arose  at  this  crisis  among 
the  leading  members  of  their  own  party.*  They  signed  at 
length,  with  heavy  hearts,  on  the  23rd  of  June;  but  to 
several  of  them  this  most  needless  piece  of  cruelty  was  a  blow 
from  which  they  never  recovered.  One  of  the  victims,  as 
before  related,  was  the  admirable  sister  of  Pascal,  the  Soeur  de 
Ste.  Euphemie.  The  Mere  Angelique  herself,  who  had  long 
been  sinking  under  the  ravages  of  a  mortal  disease,  survived 
the  distressing  scene  only  a  few  weeks.  During  her  last  illness 
she  edified  all  around  her  by  her  extraordinary  patience,  deep 
humility,  and  unshaken  confidence  in  God  ; — qualities  the  more 
remarkable,  since  the  forcible  removal  of  Singlin,  De  Sacy, 
and  Ste.  Marthe,  her  much- valued  spiritual  advisers,  had  left 
her  in  a  grievous  state  of  mental  dejection  and  desolation. 
The  saintly  Abbess  entered  into  her  rest  on  the  6th  of  August, 
1661,  in  the  seventieth  year  of  her  age. 

But  the  Jesuits,  not  satisfied  with  having  extorted  from  Port 
Royal  this  act  of  qualified  submission,  insisted  that  nothing 
would  suffice  short  of  accepting  the  Formulary  "pure  et 
simple,"  according  to  the  tenor  of  the  last-received  mandate 
from  Rome.  This  was  demanded  accordingly ;  and  the  sister- 
hood proceeded  to  debate,  in  a  state  of  extreme  embarrassment 
and  agitation,  as  to  the  course  to  be  pursued.  Their  conclusion 
was  that  it  was  impossible  to  comply  without  adding  an  explana- 
tion, signifying  in  substance  that  they  cordially  adopted  all 
decisions  of  the  Holy  See  in  points  of  faith,  but  declining  to 
pledge  themselves  to  a  like  submission  as  to  other  matters.t  This 

*  See  above,  p.  444.  I  tion    (dated    November    26,    1661):— 

t  The  following  was  their  declara-    |  "  Nous  Abbesse,  Prieures  et  Religieuses 


454  THE  GALL1CAN  CHUECH.  CHAP.  XIV. 

was  pronounced  unsatisfactory,  and  the  nuns  were  admonished 
that  they  must  sign  the  test  in  the  precise  shape  in  which  it  was 
offered  to  them,  without  qualification  or  explanation  of  any 
kind. 

At  this  juncture,  when  Port  Koyal  seemed  on  the  very  brink 
of  final  ruin,  events  occurred  which  once  more  procured  a 
respite  of  some  duration  for  the  persecuted  party.  Early  in 
the  year  1662  a  reconciliation  was  effected  between  Cardinal  de 
Ketz  and  the  Court,  on  which  occasion  that  prelate  resigned  the 
archbishopric  of  Paris.  His  vicars- general,  in  consequence, 
vacated  their  office  ipso  facto ;  and  their  ordonnance  for  the 
signature  of  the  Formulary  was  no  longer  in  force.  The  learned 
De  Marca  was  nominated  to  succeed,  but  some  time  necessarily 
elapsed  before  he  was  in  a  position  to  enter  on  his  functions ; 
and  at  the  moment  when  the  bulls  of  institution  at  length 
arrived,  the  new  archbishop  was  suddenly  attacked  by  a  mortal 
sickness,  and  expired  three  days  afterwards,  on  the  27th  of  June. 
Upon  this  the  king  resolved  to  transfer  Hardouin  Beaumont  de 
Perefixe,  who  had  formerly  been  his  preceptor,  from  the  see  of 
Rodez  to  that  of  the  metropolis.  But  unforeseen  circumstances 
occasioned  fresh  delays ;  an  insult  offered  to  the  French  ambas- 
sador at  Home,  the  Due  de  Crequi,  by  the  Pope's  Corsican  guard, 
became  a  subject  of  serious  dispute  between  the  two  courts,  and 
at  one  time  threatened  to  produce  an  open  rupture.  The  Papal 
Chancery  was  intractable ;  and  nearly  two  years  elapsed  before 
Pere'fixe  received  the  bulls  completing  his  new  dignity.  Thus 
the  diocese  remained  still  under  provisional  government. 

Meanwhile  several  of  the  French  bishops,  and  those  not  the 
least  eminent  for  ability,  learning,  and  piety,  expressed  with  honest 
freedom  their  repugnance  to  the  Formulary,  and  deprecated  its 
execution.  The  venerable  Pavilion,  Bishop  of  Alet,  took  the 
lead.  In  an  energetic  letter  to  Vialart,  Bishop  of  Chalons,  he 

des  deux  Monasteres  de  Port  Royal  de  |   temoignage  de  la  purete'  de  notre  foi  ; 

Paris  et  des  Champs,  assemblies  capi-  !   Nous  de'clarons  tres  volontiers  par  notre 

tulairement  en  chacune  des  deux  mai-  signature  qu'etant   soumises   avec  un 

sons,  pour  satisfaire  a  1'Ordonnance  de  profond  respect  a  N.  S.  P.  le  Pape,  et 

Mrs.  les  Vicaires-generaux    de    Mon-  i   n'ayant  rien  de  si  pre'cieux  que  la  foi, 

seigneur  le  Cardinal  de  Eetz  du  der-  nous  embrassons  sincerement  et  de  cceur 

iiier    Octobre    1661,    conside'rant    que  tout  ce  que  Sa  Saintete' et  le  Pape  Inno- 

dans  1'ignorance  ou  nous  sommes  de  cent  X.  en  ont  decide,  et  rejetons  toutes 

toutes  les  choses  qui  sont  au  dessus  de  les  erreurs  qu'ils  ont  juge  y  etre  con- 

nijtre  profession  et  de  notre  sexe,  tout  traires," 
ce  que  nous  pouvons  faire  e,st  de  rendre 


A.D.  1661.    EPISCOPAL  OPPOSITION  TO  THE  FORMULARY.      455 

maintained  that  no  bishop  who  entertained  a  due  respect  for  his 
office  could  either  sign,  or  require  others  to  sign,  the  For- 
mulary prescribed  by  the  Assembly ;  inasmuch  as  that  body 
had  no  authority  to  dictate  to  the  Church  a  new  article  of 
faith,  particularly  an  article  consisting  not  of  any  divinely- 
revealed  truth,  but  of  a  mere  historical  fact.  Pavilion  wrote  in 
a  similar  strain  to  the  king  and  the  Assembly.  Another  of  the 
remonstrants  was  Henri  Arnauld,  Bishop  of  Angers,  who  in- 
sisted, in  a  letter  to  the  king,  that  for  facts  which  are  not 
directly  revealed,  the  Church  lias  no  right  to  demand  religious 
or  "divine"  faith;  such  absolute  submission  being  due  to  the 
Word  of  God  alone.  Godeau,  Bishop  of  Vence,  represented  to 
Louis  that  the  so-called  Jansenist  heresy  was  nothing  but  a 
phantom  or  chimera,  invented  by  malicious  persons  for  the  pur- 
pose of  crushing  those  who  differed  from  them  in  sentiment ; 
that  the  pretended  Jansenists  were  sincere  and  orthodox  Catho- 
lics ;  and  that  the  Formulary,  far  from  promoting  unity,  would 
only  serve  to  aggravate,  prolong,  and  embitter  the  conflict 
which  unhappily  existed.  Statements  to  the  same  effect  were 
made  by  the  Bishops  of  Beauvais  and  Comminges.  Most  of  the 
above-named  prelates  applied  likewise  to  the  Pope  for  special 
directions  how  to  proceed  under  the  circumstances  ;  but  the  only 
reply  vouchsafed  by  his  Holiness  was  to  refer  them  to  his  brief 
recently  addressed  to  the  Vicars-general  of  Paris. 

The  real  views  of  the  Ultramontane  school  as  to  the  extent 
of  the  infallibility  of  the  Pope  were  curiously  illustrated  by  a 
thesis  in  divinity  maintained  at  the  Jesuit  college  of  Clermont 
on  the  12th  of  December,  1661.  It  was  thus  expressed: 
"  Christ,  when  about  to  ascend  into  heaven,  committed  first  to 
Peter,  and  then  to  his  successors,  the  supreme  government  of 
the  Church,  and  invested  them  with  the  very  same  infallibility 
which  He  Himself  possessed,  as  often  as  they  should  speak  ex 
cathedra.  There  is,  consequently,  in  the  Roman  Church  an  infal- 
lible judge  of  controversies  of  faith,  even  independently  of  a 
General  Council ;  and  that  in  questions  both  of  doctrine  and  of 
fact.  Hence,  after  the  decrees  of  Innocent  X.  and  Alexander  VII., 
it  may  be  believed  with  divine  faith  that  the  book  entitled 
the  '  Augustinus '  of  Jansenius  is  heretical,  and  that  the  Five 
Propositions  were  extracted  from  it,  and  wer.e  condemned  in  the 
sense  intended  by  the  author."  Antoine  Arnauld,  in  a  vehement 


456 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  XIV. 


pamphlet,  denounced  this  extravagant  doctrine  to  the  bishops  ; 
but  neither  the  civil  nor  ecclesiastical  authorities  thought 
proper  to  interfere.  A  few  months  later,  however,  the  same 
sentiment  having  been  repeated  in  a  thesis  at  the  Sorbonne,  and 
again  at  the  college  of  the  Bernardins,  the  Parliament  of  Paris 
took  courage,  and  pronounced  against  the  offenders  with  all  its 
ancient  vigour.  The  first  thesis  was  summarily  suppressed  ;  all 
parties  concerned  in  it  were  severely  reprimanded,  and  proposi- 
tions of  that  tendency  strictly  forbidden  for  the  future.  The 
second  offence  was  visited  with  still  heavier  penalties ;  the 
Syndic  of  the  Faculty  being  suspended  for  six  mouths  from  the 
exercise  of  his  functions.  The  Sorbonne  drew  up  on  this 
occasion  a  statement  setting  forth,  in  six  articles,  the  well- 
known  tradition  of  the  Gallican  Church  with  regard  to  the 
authority  of  the  Pope.  This  document  having  been  presented 
to  the  king  and  the  Parliament,  a  royal  ordonnance  was  pub- 
lished, enjoining  that  the  said  articles  should  be  registered  by 
all  the  Parliaments-  and  Universities  in  the  kingdom,  together 
with  a  prohibition  to  teach  or  allow  any  other  doctrine  on  the 
subject.*  It  must  not  be  concealed,  however,  that  this  display 
of  Gallican  zeal  coincided  with  certain  political  circumstances 
which  gave  it  peculiar  point  and  emphasis.  As  often  as  the 
public  relations  between  the  Courts  of  France  and  Home 
chanced  to  be  disturbed,  his  Most  Christian  Majesty  lost  no  time 
in  re-asserting  those  immemorial  principles  which  circumscribed 
the  Pontifical  jurisdiction  in  respect  both  of  the  temporalty 
and  the  spiritualty  within  his  dominions. 

Louis  had  lately  been  compelled  to  demand  satisfaction  for 
an  insult  offered  to  the  Duke  de  Crequi,  his  ambassador  at 
Kome,  by  the  Pope's  Corsican  guard.  They  had  fired  upon  the 
carriage  of  the  ambassadress,  and  killed  or  wounded  several  of 
her  attendants.  Upon  this  the  king  seized  Avignon  and  the 
county  of  the  Venaissin,  and  ordered  a  body  of  troops  to  cross 
the  Alps  and  march  upon  Borne.  An  accommodation  was 
arranged,  however,  in  the  following  year,  upon  terms  deeply 
mortifying  to  the  Papal  See. 


*  D'Argeiitre,  Collect.  Judic.,  torn, 
iii.  p.  327.  Ellies-Dupin,  H.  E.  du 
XVII.  Siede,  torn.  i.  p.  149.  D'Avrigny, 
CltronoL,  torn.  ii.  p.  420.  These 


six  articles  formed  the  basis  of  those 
promulgated  by  the  famous  Assembly 
of  1682. 


A.D.  1662.  NEGOTIATION  FOR  PEACE.  457 

The  same  circumstances  may,  perhaps,  serve  to  explain  a 
singular  negotiation  which  was  undertaken  about  this  period, 
with  a  view  to  bring  about  a  mutual  understanding  between  the 
antagonist  parties  in  the  Church,  and  thus  to  terminate  the 
controversy.  The  Jesuits,  fearing  for  their  own  interests  in  case 
the  king  should  proceed  to  extremities  in  his  quarrel  with 
Rome,  may  have  thought  it  prudent  to  conciliate  a  party  which 
might  at  no  distant  day  succeed  to  a  position  of  great  influence 
and  power. 

Whatever  the  motive  may  have  been,  it  is  certain  that, 
towards  the  close  of  1662,  F.  Aimat,  with  the  sanction  of  the 
king,  opened  communications  with  Gilbert  de  Choiseul,  Bishop 
of  Comminges,  an  intimate  friend  of  the  Arnaulds,  and  begged 
him  to  confer  with  F.  Ferrier,  a  learned  Jesuit,  professor  of 
theology  at  Toulouse,  whom  he  would  find  anxiously  desirous  to 
promote  the  good  work  of  reconciliation.*  A  preliminary  in- 
terview took  place  accordingly  between  the  bishop  and  the 
Jesuit  at  Toulouse ;  and  it  was  agreed,  after  reference  to  the 
Jansenist  leaders,  that  the  proposed  conferences  should  forthwith 
commence,  with  an  understanding  that  the  Formulary  should 
be  left  entirely  out  of  the  question,  and  that  nothing  should  be 
demanded  of  the  Jansenists  that  could  offend  their  conscientious 
convictions. 

The  bishop  and  Ferrier  proceeded  to  Paris ;  and  the  king 
gave  permission  to  Arnauld,  Singlin,  Taignier,  and  the  Abbs'  de 
St.  Cyran  (M.  de  Barcos),  who  were  still  in  concealment,  to 
reappear  in  the  capital,  with  an  assurance  of  perfect  safety 
pending  the  conferences.  They  declined,  however,  to  accept 
this  favour ;  and  two  divines  of  high  reputation,  La  Lanne  and 
Girard,  were  deputed  to  act  on  this  occasion  on  behalf  of  their 
friends. 

It  was  proposed  on  the  part  of  the  Jansenists,  that  they 
should  draw  up  five  articles  bearing  on  the  points  of  doctrine 
contained  in  the  five  condemned  propositions,  and  that  in  these 
articles  they  should  express  distinctly  their  own  sentiments  with 


*  According  to  Racine's  account 
(Hist,  de  Port  Royal,  p.  199)  the  first 
overtures  came  from  F.  Ferrier,  whom 
he  describes  as  an  artful,  ambitious 
inun,  actuated  chiefly  by  the  desire  of 
making  himself  conspicuous,  and  gain- 


ing the  appointment  of  confessor  at 
court.  Gerberon,  on  the  other  hand, 
asserts  that  the  project  of  reunion  was 
started  by  the  Bishop  of  Comminges. 
(Hisloire  du  Jansenisme,  torn.  iii. 
p.  31.) 


458  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XIV. 

regard   to  the  aforesaid  doctrines ;    if  their  views  should   be 
accepted  by  the  other  side,  all  ground  of  dispute  would  disappear 
at  once,  and  nothing  would  remain  to  hinder  the  re-establish- 
ment of  peace.     This  was   agreed  to;    and  on   the  23rd  of 
January,  1663,  La  Laime  and  Girard  produced  a  document  in 
which  the  controverted  questions  were  treated  in  close  accord- 
ance with  the  system  usually  known  as  that  of  the  Thomists — 
which   latter,  while   differing  widely  from  that  of  the  Moli- 
nists,  had  been  repeatedly   approved  by  Popes  and  Councils, 
and  had  always  been  held  admissible  in  the  Church.     The  new 
Jansenist  articles  recognized  the  distinction  between   "  grace 
actuelle"  or  "  suffisante,"  and  "  grace  efficace ;"  they  repudiated 
the  notion  of  necessitant  grace  ;  and  they  declared  that  grace, 
if  short  of  effectual  grace,  may  be  resisted  by  the  human  will.* 
These  were  large  concessions  ;  concessions  which,  had  they  been 
made  in  good  faith  ten  years  before,  might  have  averted  untold 
calamities  from  the  Church  of  France.      The   affair   looked 
hopeful,  and  the  good  Bishop  of  Comminges  already  began  to 
congratulate  himself  on  the  success  of  his  charitable  enterprise. 
F.  Ferrier,  on  examining  the  Jansenist  statement,  took  ex- 
ception to  certain  expressions  in  the  first  article ;  but  this  diffi- 
culty having  been  removed  by  the  addition  of  a  few  words  in 
explanation,  he  declared  himself  perfectly  satisfied ;  and  as  the 
other  articles  were  unobjectionable,  he  could  not  but  confess 
that  the  Jansenist  doctrine  as  a  whole  coincided  with  that  of 
the  Church.     But  instead  of  proceeding  to  concert  measures  for 
a  definite  peace,  the  Jesuit  now  presented  to  La  Lanne  and 
Girard  five  articles  drawn  up  by  himself,  which  contained,  he 
said,  the  sense  in  which  the  heretical  Propositions  had  been 
condemned  by  the  Pope.     These  he  proposed  that  the  deputies 
should  abjure  in  writing,  in  testimony  of  their  adhesion  to  the 
sentence  passed  by  the  Holy  See ;  in  that  case,  he  added,  no 
demand  would  be  made  upon  them  with  regard  to  the  question 
of  fact ;  they  would  not  be  expected  to  declare  that  the  here- 


*  "  Secunda  (gratia)  ea  est  quam  turn  j   consentire,  nee  tamen,  si  absit  gratia 

excitantem,  turn  inefficacem,  turn  suf-  j   efficax,  unquarn  consentit ;  non  defectu 

ficientem    idem   siguificantibus  verbis  antecedents  potestatis,  sed  libera  sui 

vocant;   huic  vere  resistit  ac  renititur  ipsius   in  oppositum    determinatione." 

voluntas,  eamque  eo  effectu  privat  ad  See    D'Argentre,   Collect.  Judic.,  torn, 

quern  excitat,  et  ad  quern  potestateni  j  iii.  p.  306. 

largitur.     Potest  quidem  illi  voluntas  j 


A.D.  1663.        CONFERENCES  WITH  A  VIEW  TO  PEACE.  459 

tical  doctrine  was  that  of  Jansenius,  nor  to  subscribe  his  con- 
demnation by  name.  The  deputies  complied  without  difficulty  ; 
and  after  this  both  parties  appear  to  have  looked  forward  con- 
fidently to  a  final  pacification. 

But  at  the  next  meeting  this  fair  prospect  was  overclouded 
by  a  debate  which  arose  upon  the  precise  point  where  agreement 
was  utterly  hopeless  ;  namely,  the  necessity  of  condemning  the 
Propositions  in  the  sense  intended  by  their  author.  The  "  sense 
of  Jansenius"  had  been  for  years  the  real  apple  of  discord 
between  the  rival  parties ;  and  it  proved  an  insurmountable 
obstacle  to  the  success  of  the  present  negociation. 

The  Bishop  of  Comminges, — finding  that  no  progress  was 
made,  and  that,  in  spite  of  the  express  stipulation  to  the  con- 
trary at  the  commencement  of  the  conferences,  the  question  of 
fact  had  become  the  prominent,  indeed  the  sole,  issue  to  be 
decided, — devised  another  method  of  proceeding,  by  which  he 
conceived  that  an  accommodation  might  still  be  effected.  He 
proposed  that  F.  Ferrier  should  transmit  to  the  Pope  the  five 
articles  of  the  Jansenists,  together  with  a  formula  setting  forth 
their  profound  respect  for  his  Holiness,  and  their  cordial  sub- 
mission to  all  the  decisions  of  the  Apostolic  See.  Ferrier,  who 
seems  to  have  been  personally  sincere  in  desiring  to  make  peace, 
consented,  but  others  of  his  Order  interfered  to  oppose  the 
design,  and  intrigued  without  scruple  to  bring  about  a  rupture 
of  the  conferences ;  and  the  result  was  that  when  the  deputies 
next  assembled,  Ferrier  told  them  plainly  that  no  arrangement 
was  possible  unless  they  would  declare  that  they  condemned  the 
Five  Propositions  in  the  sense  specified  by  the  Papal  constitu- 
tions ;  that  is,  the  sense  of  Jansenius.  This  sacrifice  they  did  not 
feel  at  liberty  to  make ;  and  in  consequence  the  scheme  of  recon- 
ciliation fell  to  the  ground.  The  Bishop  of  Comminges,  however, 
at  the  desire  of  the  Jansenist  commissioners,  despatched  their 
profession  of  faith  to  Eome,  accompanied  by  an  act  of  uncon- 
ditional submission  to  the  Pope's  authority  and  judgment. 
Alexander  thereupon  named  a  special  congregation  to  examine 
the  articles,  and  they  were  quickly  pronounced  to  be  ambiguous, 
illogical,  and  inadmissible.  A  brief  was  addressed  to  the  French 
prelates  on  the  29th  of  July,  in  which  the  Pope  applauded  their 
zeal  for  the  truth,  congratulated  them  on  their  success  in 
bringing  the  Jansenists  to  a  better  mind,  and  exhorted  them  to 


460  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XIV. 

employ  all  the  means  at  their  command  for  carrying  into 
complete  effect  the  decisions  of  the  Holy  See  in  the  two  consti- 
tutions against  Jansenius. 

La  Lanne  and  Girard,  when  called  upon  to  redeem  their 
promise  by  conforming  themselves  to  the  renewed  demand  of 
the  Holy  Father  as  signified  in  his  brief,  placed  in  the  hands 
of  the  Bishop  of  Comminges  a  second  declaration,  signifying 
that  they  rejoiced  in  the  implied  approbation  of  their  doctrine 
conveyed  by  the  terms  of  the  Papal  brief,  that  they  were  ready 
to  sign  a  condemnation  of  the  Five  Propositions  in  any  words 
which  his  Holiness  might  prescribe,  but  that,  as  their  act  of 
submission  did  not  bind  them  to  anything  repugnant  to  truth 
and  conscience,  they  could  not,  without  distinction  and  qualifi- 
cation, abjure  the  "  sense  of  Jansenius."  The  Bishop  presented 
this  memorial  to  the  king  on  the  24th  of  September,  and  then 
withdrew,  deeply  grieved  and  mortified,  to  his  remote  diocese 
in  Languedoc. 

Such  was  the  abortive  issue  of  these  conferences,  which 
created  a  considerable  sensation  at  the  time.  The  inflexible 
Antoine  Arnauld,  who  profoundly  distrusted  the  sincerity  of 
any  overtures  proceeding  from  the  Jesuits,  retired  from  the 
negociation  soon  after  its  commencement ;  which  circumstance 
was  in  itself  almost  inevitably  fatal  to  the  success  of  the  attempt. 
Arnauld  had  persisted  for  so  many  years  in  an  attitude  of 
stubborn  antagonism,  that  the  very  notion  of  submission,  though 
on  the  easiest  terms,  was  to  him  insupportable.  Perhaps  it  is 
not  too  much  to  say  that  he  preferred  strife  to  peace,  at  all 
events  if  the  latter  were  to  be  purchased  by  any  semblance  of 
surrender  to  his  adversaries.  In  vain  the  Bishop  of  Comminges 
assured  him  that  he  was  not  asked  to  profess  an  internal  belief 
of  anything  from  which  his  conscience  revolted,  but  only  to 
defer  to  superior  authority  as  a  matter  of  external  ecclesiastical 
discipline.  He  replied  that  such  distinctions  were  not  to  be 
reconciled  with  his  views  of  duty,  and  remained  impracticable.* 

Accounts  of  the  Conferences  were  forthwith  published  by 
both  parties,  abounding  with  mutual  charges  of  misrepre- 
sentation, deception,  and  calumny.  Appeal  was  thereupon 
made  to  the  Bishop  of  Comminges,  who,  having  acted  as  me- 


*  See  Lettres  <f  Antoine  Arnauld,  Nos.  clx.  clxi. ;  torn.  i.  p.  476  et  seqq. 


A.D.  1C64.  THE  FORMULARY  ENFORCED  BY  ROYAL  EDICT.     461 

diator  throughout,  must  have  been  better  qualified  than  any 
one  else  to  determine  on  which  side  the  truth  lay ;  but  that 
prelate  preserved  a  resolute  silence,  and  thereby  gave  reason  to 
presume  that  his  testimony,  had  he  chosen  to  speak  out,  would 
have  been  unfavourable  to  those  with  whose  general  sentiments 
and  policy  he  was  known  to  sympathize. 

The  second  declaration  of  the  Jansenist  commissioners  was 
laid  before  the  royal  "council  of  conscience,"  and  disallowed 
as  insufficient  and  evasive  ;  whereupon  the  king  summoned  an 
assembly  of  prelates  to  deliberate  on  the  best  means  of  carrying 
into  execution  the  late  brief  from  Rome.  Fifteen  archbishops 
and  bishops  met  at  Paris  on  the  2nd  of  October,  1663,  and 
determined  (though  they  had  obviously  no  right  to  dictate  to 
their  colleagues)  that  no  better  course  could  be  taken  than  to 
insist  on  the  immediate  and  universal  signature  of  the  Formu- 
lary of  the  clergy.  They  besought  the  king  to  exert  his 
authority  for  the  attainment  of  this  end.  Louis  issued  his 
edict  accordingly,  and  proceeded  in  person  to  the  Parliament 
on  the  15th  of  April,  1664,  to  enforce  its  registration  in  due 
form.  By  this  decree  his  Majesty  enjoined  that  the  Formulary 
should  be  signed  by  all  ecclesiastics  secular  and  regular,  with- 
out any  privilege  of  appeal ;  that  the  benefices  of  those  who 
should  not  have  signed  it  within  the  space  of  one  month  from 
the  publication  of  the  edict  should  be  ipso  facto  void  ;  and  that 
no  one  should  henceforth  be  admitted  to  any  ecclesiastical  pre- 
ferment, nor  to  any  degrees  or  offices  in  the  Universities,  nor 
to  make  profession  in  any  monastery,  without  having  first 
subscribed  the  test.  He  concluded  with  a  general  prohibition 
of  all  books  and  writings  already  or  hereafter  to  be  published 
contrary  to  the  bulls  of  Innocent  X.  and  Alexander  VII., 
the  orders  of  the  Assembly  of  Clergy,  and  the  decrees  of  the 
Faculty  of  Theology  of  Paris. 

The  new  Archbishop  of  Paris,  having  at  length  (April  20th, 
1664)  obtained  his  bulls  and  entered  on  his  functions,  pub- 
lished a  mandement  enjoining  the  immediate  signature  of  the 
Formulary,  in  pursuance  of  the  royal  edict.  Perefixe,  though 
an  obsequious  courtier,  was  a  man  of  pacific  counsels,  and 
anxious  to  discover  some  expedient  by  which  the  king's  com- 
mands might  be  obeyed  without  doing  violence  to  the  conscien- 
tious scruples  of  the  Jansenists.  With  this  view,  he  drew  a 


462  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XIV. 

distinction  in  his  mandement  between  the  several  kinds  and 
degrees  of  belief.  No  one,  he  observed,  except  through  malice 
or  ignorance,  could  maintain  that  the  Church  had  ever  de- 
manded for  the  fact  of  Jansenius  a  "divine"  faith,  such  as  is 
claimed  for  the  supernatural  truths  of  revelation.  All  that 
was  asked  was  a  "  human  "  or  "  ecclesiastical "  faith,  implying 
cordial  submission  of  judgment  to  the  supreme  spiritual  au- 
thority.* This,  from  such  a  quarter,  was  a  most  important 
declaration,  conceding  substantially  the  point  for  which  the  Jan- 
senists  had  all  along  contended,  namely,  that  the  decisions  of  the 
Pope  on  matters  of  fact  stood  on  different  ground  from  his 
definitions  de  fide ;  and  condemning,  moreover,  those  who  held, 
as  the  Jesuits  notoriously  did,  that  the  selfsame  quality  and 
degree  of  faith  is  due  to  aU  decisions  of  the  Apostolic  See, 
whether  their  subject-matter  be  fact  or  doctrine.  It  is  strange 
that,  with  the  latitude  of  construction  thus  authorized  by  their 
diocesan,  the  friends  of  Port  Royal  should  have  persisted  in 
opposing  the  required  subscription  to  the  Formulary ;  for  they 
had  often  professed  themselves  willing  to  sign  as  an  act  of 
canonical  obedience  or  discipline ;  and  the  mandement  of  the 
archbishop,  though  varying  somewhat  in  terms,  amounted  in 
reality  to  no  more  than  this.  They  showed  no  disposition,  how- 
ever, to  accept  the  olive-branch ;  on  the  contrary,  they  began 
to  write  in  a  strain  of  caustic  sarcasm  against  the  newly-invented 
theory  of  "human  faith;"  and  Nicole,  in  particular,  ridiculed 
it  without  mercy  in  a  series  of  letters  entitled  'Les  Imagi- 
naires,'  which  appeared  about  this  time,  and  formed  a  kind  of 
sequel  to  the  *  Provinciales '  of  Pascal. 

The  archbishop  proceeded  in  person,  on  the  9th  of  June,  to 
Port  Royal,  attended  by  his  vicar-general,  and  made  an  official 
visitation  of  the  monastery.  He  interrogated  the  nuns,  replied 
to  their  objections  with  much  patience,  and  exerted  all  his 
powers  of  argument  and  persuasion  to  reduce  them  to  compli- 
ance. But  his  endeavours  were  fruitless ;  he  withdrew,  after 
intimating  that  three  weeks  would  be  allowe  1  them  for  further 
consideration,  during  which  he  hoped  they  would  profit  by  the 
instructions  of  two  ecclesiastics  specially  appointed  for  this 
purpose — Chamillard,  a  doctor  of  the  Sorbonne,  and  Father 


*  D'Avrigny,  Mem.  Chronolog.,  torn.  ii.  p.  444. 


A.D.  1664.     ARCHBISHOP  PEREF1XE  AT  PORT  ROYAL.  463 

Esprit  of  the  Oratory.  These  divines  proposed  to  the  sister- 
hood various  forms  of  submission,  expressed  in  general  terms, 
either  of  which  would  have  satisfied  the  archbishop ;  but  in- 
superable objections  were  raised  to  each.  At  last  the  com- 
munity adopted  a  declaration  stating  that  they  accepted  with 
sincere  belief  the  doctrinal  decision ;  and  that  with  regard  to 
the  fact,  as  they  felt  themselves  incompetent  to  form  any  judg- 
ment, they  maintained  the  "  respectful  silence "  which  best 
became  their  condition.  They  could  not,  in  conscience,  testify 
by  a  public  act  that  certain  heresies  were  contained  in  a  book 
which  they  had  never  seen :  a  book,  too,  written  in  Latin,  of 
which  language  they  knew  nothing. 

On  the  21st  of  August  the  archbishop  made  his  second  visit 
to  the  convent  of  Port  Eoyal  at  Paris.  Having  assembled  the 
community,  he  put  the  question  to  them  individually,  whether 
they  were  willing  to  sign  the  Formulary  according  to  his  mande- 
ment ;  and  finding  them  still  resolute  in  their  refusal,  he 
upbraided  them  sharply  for  their  obstinacy, — declared  that, 
"  though  they  might  be  pure  as  angels,  they  were  proud  as 
devils," — and  ended  by  interdicting  them  from  the  use  of  the 
Sacraments.  Severe  measures  followed.  In  the  course  of  a  few 
days  the  prelate  again  made  his  appearance  at  the  monastery, 
attended  by  the  lieutenant-civil  and  other  officers,  with  a 
formidable  array  of  exempts  and  archers.  He  went  straight  to 
the  chapterhouse,  and  there,  reading  from  a  list  the  names  of 
twelve  of  the  principal  nuns,  the  abbess  among  the  number, 
he  ordered  them  to  leave  the  convent  forthwith,  and  enter  the 
carriages  which  were  waiting  for  them  at  the  gate.*  Solemnly 
protesting  against  this  act  of  violence,  they  obeyed  ;  and  were 
removed  to  other  religious  houses  according  to  arrange- 
ments made  previously.  They  were  replaced  by  sisters  of  the 
order  of  the  Visitation,  and  the  Mere  Louise  Eugenie  de  Fon- 
taine was  appointed  abbess.  The  ejected  nuns  made  their  appeal 
to  the  Parliament  against  the  proceedings  of  their  diocesan, 
but  the  Court  interfered,  and  the  affair  was  evoked  to  the  cog- 
nizance of  the  Council  of  State,  where  of  course  it  was  quietly 
suppressed. 

The  establishment  at  Port  Eoyal  des  Champs  was  visited 


*  Four  of  them  were  members  of  the  Arnauld  family. 


464  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XIV. 

some  months  later  with  the  same  penalties  that  had  been  in- 
flicted on  the  house  at  Paris.  Perefixe,  as  a  last  resource,  com- 
missioned the  famous  Bossuet,  at  that  time  archdeacon  and 
canon  of  Metz,  to  confer  with  the  contumacious  nuns,  in  the 
hope  that  his  eloquence  might  win  them  over  to  a  more  reason- 
able mind.  The  accomplished  abbe  spared  no  pains  to  convince 
them  that,  according  to  the  terms  of  the  archbishop's  mande- 
rnent,  they  were  not  required  to  embrace  the  fact  of  Jansenius 
by  a  conscious  act  of  the  understanding,  but  only  to  acquiesce 
in  the  Pope's  decision  out  of  deference  to  his  authority.*  But 
he  laboured  in  vain ;  the  sisters  had  become  ambitious  of  the 
honours  of  martyrdom ;  rather  than  yield  an  inch  of  ground  to 
their  oppressors,  they  preferred  incurring  the  extreme  sentence 
of  excommunication,  which  was  launched  against  them  accord- 
ingly, and  remained  in  force  for  several  years,  until  the  "  peace 
of  Clement  IX." 

The  signature  of  the  Formulary,  meanwhile,  made  compara- 
tively little  progress  throughout  France.  The  fearless  Pavilion, 
who  deemed  the  whole  proceeding  uncanonical  and  illegal,  and 
could  not  reconcile  his  conscience  to  half-measures,  solemnly 
prohibited  its  execution  in  his  diocese,  and  even  excommuni- 
cated some  of  his  clergy  who,  contrary  to  his  orders,  had  taken 
the  test  before  the  civil  magistrates.  For  this  he  was  denounced 
to  the  Parliament,  in  a  violent  speech,  by  Omer  Talon,  the 
advocate-general ;  and  an  arret  of  that  body  suppressed  a 
somewhat  intemperate  letter  which  he  had  written  to  the  king. 
It  was  stoutly  maintained,  by  the  opponents  of  the  Formulary, 
that  the  Pope  himself  disapproved  the  step  taken  by  the 
clergy  in  imposing  it;  that  he  had  avoided  all  mention  of  it 
in  his  briefs,  and  that  his  opinion  of  the  measure  was  also 
manifest  from  his  own  conduct,  since  he  had  not  thought 
it  necessary  to  exact  any  such  test  of  orthodoxy  at  Home. 
Louis  XIV.,  finding  himself  embarrassed  by  these  allegations, 
requested  the  Pope  to  prescribe  a  new  form  of  subscription,  and 


*  Bossuet's  Lettre  aux  Beligieuses  de 
Port  Royal  was  not  published  till  five 
years  after  his  death.  The  Abb6  Le 
Dieu  (Journal  sur  la  vie  de  Bossuet) 


supposition,  since  the  principal  points 
connected  with  their  duty  on  the  occa- 
sion are  there  handled  in  so  masterly  a 
style  that  submission  could  scarcely 


states  his  belief  that  it  was  never  for-   I   have  failed  to  follow  in  minds  honestly 
warded  to  its  destination ;  and,  as  re-   '•    open  to  conviction, 
gards  the  sisters,  this  is  a  charitable    ' 


A.D.  1665.         THE  BULL  "REG1MINIS  APOSTOLTCI."  465 

to  insist  upon  its  execution  by  the  bishops  and  clergy  of  France. 
Nothing  could  be  more  acceptable  to  the  Court  of  Rome  than 
such  an  application ;  for  nothing  could  be  better  calculated  to 
support  the  pretensions  of  the  See  to  universal  dominion  and 
infallible  authority.  A  bull  was  despatched  to  France  without 
delay,  dated  February  15,  1665,  embodying  a  Formulary  almost 
identical  in  terms  with  that  of  the  bishops,*  and  enjoining  that 
it  should  be  signed  universally  within  three  months  after  its 
publication ;  in  default  of  which  the  recusants  would  be  pro- 
ceeded against  with  the  utmost  rigour  prescribed  by  the  canons,  f 
The  bull  was  confirmed  by  a  royal  declaration,  and  registered 
in  Parliament  on  the  29th  of  April. 

The  bishops  now  felt  bound  to  proceed  in  earnest ;  and  in 
every  diocese  measures  were  taken  for  enforcing  subscription. 
But  the  mandements  issued  for  this  purpose  varied  consider- 
ably ;  some  prelates  demanded  compliance  "  purement  et 
simplement,"  without  any  distinction  between  the  droit  and 
the  fait;  others  expressly  sanctioned  such  distinction,  requir- 
ing a  submission  by  "  divine  faith  "  for  the  doctrine,  and  of 
external  respect,  as  a  matter  of  discipline,  for  the  fact.  The 
Archbishop  of  Paris,  whose  theory  of  "  human  faith  "  had  by 
this  time  sunk  into  general  discredit,  abandoned  that  term  on 
the  present  occasion,  and  adopted  the  ambiguous  phrase  of 
"  sincere  acquiescence ;"  wliicli  might  be  construed  by  Ultra- 
montanes  as  equivalent  to  "divine  faith,"  while  Jansenists 
might  take  advantage  of  it  to  subscribe  the  test  without  any 
real  belief  at  all. 

The  courageous  Bishop  of  Alet,  disdaining  to  equivocate  under 
such  circumstances,  published  a  mandement  on  the  1st  of  June, 
in  which  his  views  as  to  the  limits  of  Church  authority  were  set 
forth  with  transparent  clearness.  Truths  revealed  by  God,  of 
which  the  Church  is  the  ordained  guardian,  must  be  accepted  on 
her  testimony  with  an  entire  subjection  of  the  reason  and  of  all 


*  The  following  is  the  text  of  the  sensu  ab  eodem  authore  iutento,  prout 

Formulary  as  prescribed  by  Alexander  i  illas  per  dictas    Constitutiones   Sedes 

VII. : — "  Ego  N.   Constitution!  Apos-  i  Apostolica  damnavit,  sincere  animo  re- 

tolicse  Innocentii  X.,  dates  die  31  Mai,  jicio  ac  damno,  et  ita  juro.     Sic  me 

1653,  et  Con?titutioni  Alexandri  VII.,  Deus  adjuvet,  et  ha?c  sancta  Dei  Evan- 

datae    16    Octobris,   1656,    summorutn  gelia." 

Pontificum,    me  subjicio,    et    quinque  j       t  See  the  bull   "  Regiminia   Apos- 

propositiones  ex  Cornelii  Jansenii  libro,  tolici,"  in  the  Memoires  du  C'.erge  de 

cui  nomeu  Augustinus,  excerptas,  et  in  '  France,  torn.  i.  p.  365. 

VOL.  I.  2    H 


466   J  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XIV. 

the  faculties  of  the  mind ;  but  with  regard  to  other  truths,  not 
so  revealed,  God  has  not  provided  any  infallible  arbiter ;  so  that 
when  the  Church  declares  that  certain  propositions  are  con- 
tained in  a  given  book,  or  that  such  and  such  is  the  meaning 
of  a  particular  author,  she  acts  only  by  human  knowledge,  and 
may  be  mistaken.  For  decisions  of  this  kind  the  Church  cannot 
require  positive  internal  belief;  nevertheless  the  faithful  are 
not  permitted  to  question  or  impugn  her  judgments,  which  in 
all  cases  must  be  treated  with  submission,  for  the  preservation 
of  due  order  and  discipline.  The  high  character  and  saintly 
life  of  Pavilion  added  infinite  weight  to  his  pastoral  instructions. 
His  sentiments  were  shared  by  other  prelates,  particularly  by 
Henri  Arnauld,  Bishop  of  Angers,  Nicolas  Choart  de  Buzanval, 
Bishop  of  Beauvais,  and  Fran9ois  de  Caulet,  Bishop  of  Pamiers ; 
these  issued  mandements  of  precisely  similar  import,  as  did 
also  the  Bishops  of  Noyon  and  Laon ;  but  the  two  latter,  on 
receiving  notice  of  the  displeasure  of  the  Court,  retracted,  and 
adopted  a  tone  of  exact  accordance  with  the  Papal  bull.  An 
arret  of  the  Council  of  State,  on  the  20th  of  July,  cancelled 
the  mandements  of  the  four  refractory  bishops,  and  forbade  the 
clergy  to  obey  them.* 

It  was  determined  to  take  judicial  proceedings  against  the 
prelates  who  had  thus  boldly  constituted  themselves  the  apostles 
of  Jansenism ;  but  this  was  an  affair  of  considerable  delicacy 
and  difficulty.  According  to  Roman  jurisprudence,  the  Pope 
was  the  sole  judge  of  bishops ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  one 
of  the  most  cherished 'of  the  Gallican  liberties,  that  bishops  in 
France  could  only  be  tried,  in  the  first  instance,  before  their 
metropolitan  and  his  comprovincials.t  Application  having  been 
made  to  the  Pope  on  the  subject  by  the  French  ambassador  at 
Rome,  his  Holiness  proposed  to  name  the  Archbishop  of  Paris 
and  two  other  prelates  as  delegates  for  hearing  the  cause ;  but 
the  king  decidedly  objected  to  this  method  of  adjudication,  as 
an  invasion  of  the  privileges  which  he  was  bound  to  defend. 
After  a  tedious  negociation,  it  was  at  length  arranged  that  the 
Pope  should  nominate  a  commission  of  nine  prelates  to  proceed 
to  the  trial  of  their  colleagues ;  that  seven  should  be  competent 
to  act;  that' the  president  should  have  power  to  appoint  sub- 

*  Clemen(,'ot,  Hist.  Gen.  de  Port  Royal,  torn.  vi.  p.  320. 

t  Memoir  it  du  Clerg?<le  France,  torn.  ii.  p.  422,  456  et  seqq. 


A.D.  1667.  ACCESSION  OF  POPE  CLEMENT  IX.  467 

stitutes  in  the  room  of  those  who  might  decline  to  act ;  and 
that  the  accused  should  not  be  at  liber  ty^either  to]  challenge 
the  judges  or  to  appeal  from  their  decision. 

The  mandements  of  the  four  bishops  were  at  the  same  time 
denounced  by  a  decree  of  the  Congregation  of  the  Index ;  upon 
which  the  bishops  of  Languedoc  wrote  to  the  .king  in  terms  of 
energetic  remonstance  against  the  encroachments  of  the  Court 
of  Rome  on  the  rights  of  the  episcopate,  and  Louis  replied  by 
assuring  them  that  he  would  always  uphold  their  lawful  juris- 
diction and  the  liberties  of  the  G-allican  Church. 

The  prosecution  of  the  bishops  was  suspended  by  the  'death 
of  Alexander  VII.,  which  occurred  on  the  20th  of  May,  1667. 
Cardinal  Giulio  Rospigliosi,  who  succeeded  him  under  the 
name  of  Clement  IX.,  was  known  to  be  of  moderate  opinions 
and  disposed  to  a  pacification  ;  and  measures  were  immediately 
concerted  in  France  for  taking  advantage  of  this  favourable 
change  of  circumstances.  The  Jansenists  had  lately  made 
two  proselytes  of  exalted  rank,  the  Princess  of  Conti  and 
the  Duchess  of  Longueville :  the  former  a  niece  of  Cardinal 
Mazarin,  married  to  a  prince  of  the  blood  royal;  the  latter, 
once  the  restless  intrigante  of  the  Fronde,  but  now  a  remorseful 
penitent,  under  the  spiritual  guidance  of  Singlin.  Through  the 
intervention  of  these  noble  ladies  their  adopted  party  gained 
the  protection  of  the  ministers  Le  Tellier  and  De  Lionne,  who 
at  that  time  werejiigh  in  the  confidence  of  Louis  XIV.  They 
represented  the  case  strongly  to  the  king,  dwelling  especially 
on  the  imminent  risk  of  a  schism  in  the  Church  if  matters 
should  be  pressed  to  extremity  against  the  four  bishops.  Louis 
allowed  it  to  be  understood  that  he  should  be  glad  if  means 
could  be  devised  for  effecting  an  accommodation ;  upon  which 
the  Archbishop  of  Sens  (De  Gondrin),  and  Felix  Vialart,  Bishop 
of  Chalons,  offered  their  services  as  mediators  for  this  purpose. 

Their  first  step  was  to  draw  up  a  respectful  letter  to  the 
Pope  in  defence  of  their  accused  brethren,  which  was  sub- 
scribed, through  their  exertions,  by  nineteen  prelates.*  This 

*  The  following  extract  contains  its  j  mandatis  quod  vel  a  Catholicse  doc- 
substance  : — "  Quod  ergo  ab  ipsa  (fide)  trinse  norma  vel  a  Romans  sedis  reve- 
quidam  ipsos  in  suis  de  subscription  rentia  tantilluin  deflectat?  Novura  et 
mandatis  discessisse  criminantur,  alien-  inauditum  apud  nos  nonnulli  dogma 
issima  ab  ipsis,  Beatissime  Pater,  et  !  procuderunt,  Ecclesise  nempe  decretis, 
inanis  suspicio  est.  Quid  enim  in  illis  !  quibus  quotidiana  nee  revelata  divini- 

2  H2 


468  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XIV. 

document  assured  his  Holiness  that  the  four  bishops  were  un- 
justly charged  with  want  of  deference  to  the  Holy  See,  since 
their  doctrine  as  to  the  judgment  of  the  Church  on  unrevealed 
facts  was  none  other  than  that  of  Cardinals  Baron  ius,  Bellar- 
mine,  and  Palavicini, — writers  held  in  the  highest  estimation  at 
Home.  If  this  was  an  error,  it  was  not  peculiar  to  the  prelates 
in  question,  but  was  held  by  their  colleagues,  and,  indeed,  by 
the  whole  Church.  Many  French  bishops  had  expressed  the 
very  same  sentiments  to  their  clergy, — sentiments  which  re- 
mained on  record  in  their  diocesan  registries,  although  not 
published.  The  letter  concluded  with  an  eloquent  appeal  to 
Clement  to  signalise  his  accession  to  the  Pontificate  by  healing 
the  wounds  of  the  distracted  Church,  an  achievement  which 
would  cover  his  name  with  immortal  glory. 

The  same  prelates  proceeded  to  address  a  letter  to  the  king, 
setting  forth  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Four  Bishops  was  that 
which  the  Church  had  uniformly  held  in  all  ages,  and  that 
they  could  not  be  prosecuted  in  the  manner  proposed  without 
a  direct  infraction  of  the  Gallican  liberties,  and  without  de- 
grading the  bishops  into  mere  vassals  of  the  Pope.  This  pro- 
duction was  denounced  by  the  king  to  the  Parliament  (doubt- 
less at  the  instigation  of  the  Jesuit  Annat),  upon  which  an  arret 
appeared  for  its  suppression,  and  threatening  penal  measures 
against  those  who,  by  "  unlawful  cabals  and  assemblies,"  caused 
such  demonstrations.  A  similar  course  was  taken  with  a  mani- 
festo from  the  four  bishops  themselves  addressed  to  the  whole 
French  episcopate,  in  which  they  complained  bitterly  of  the 
oppressive  treatment  they  had  met  with,  and  entreated  their 


tiis  facia  deciduntur,  certain  et  infalli- 
bilem  constare  veritatem,  adeoque  ipsa 
non  minus  quain  revelata  in  Scripturis 
et  traditions  dogmata  fide  esse  te- 
nenda.  Hoc  vero  dogma,  Beat.  Pater, 
quod  ab  omnibus  antiquis  recentibus- 
que  theologis  damnatum  est,  ex  prse- 
decessoris  vestri  constitutionibus  iidem 
qui  invexerunt  stabilire  nitebantur. 
Huic  malo  ut  occurrerent,  praedicti  epis- 
copi  oppositam  manifesto  huic  errori 
doctrinam  in  mandatis  suis  exposue- 
runt,  bumana  scilicet  nee  diviuitus 
revelata  facta  non  omnimoda  et  infalli- 


ipsam  a  fidelibus  exigere  quam  ut  sua 
decreta  reverenter,  ut  par  est,  babeant. 
Quid  in  hac  doctrina  in  Komanam 
Sedem  irreligiosum  ?  Cum  non  modo  a 
summis  Apostolicse  sedis  veneratoribus 
ejusque  acerrimis  vindicibus,  Baronio, 
Bellarmino,  Palavicino  asserta  et  tra- 
dita  sit  ...  Ita  sentire  si  criminosum 
existimetur,  non  boc  proprium  ipsorum, 
sed  omnium  nostrum,  imo  totius  EC- 
elegise  crimen  fuerit.  Non  defuerunt 
nee  primi  nee  postremi  nominis  Epis- 
copi,  qui  idem  prorsus  quod  ilia  prse- 
stiteruut,  in  publicis  actis,  sive  tabulis 


bili   certitudine   ab  Ecclesia    definiri,      in  quibus  eandem  late  doctrinam  ex- 
ideoque  in  hujusmodi  rebus  nihil  aliud      plicaruut." 


THE  FOUR  BISHOPS  TO  THE  GALLICAN  EPISCOPATE.      409 

brethren  to  unite  in  a  firm  resistance  to  this  attack  upon  the 
privileges  of  their  Order.  The  paper  is  of  considerable  length ; 
it  is  replete  with  learning  and  forcible  argument,  and  may  be 
said  to  exhaust  the  subject  of  which  it  treats.  The  bishops 
appeal  to  the  records  of  antiquity,  to  the  canons  of  Antioch, 
Sardica,  and  the  celebrated  Councils  of  Africa  in  the  time  of 
Popes  Zosimus,  Coelestine,  and  Boniface,  in  proof  of  the  great 
principle  that  bishops  are  to  be  judged  by  the  metropolitan  and 
his  suffragans  assembled  in  provincial  Synod.  They  shew  that 
this  was  confirmed  by  the  Gallican  Code  received  by  Charle- 
magne from  Pope  Adrian  I. ;  and,  further,  that  it  is  implied 
even  by  the  Pseudo-Isidorian  Decretals.  They  cite,  likewise, 
the  Articles  published  by  the  Sorbonne  in  1663,  one  of  which 
condemns  any  infraction  of  the  ecclesiastical  laws  of  the  realm, 
and,  in  particular,  any  attempt  to  depose  bishops  contrary  to 
the  regulations  laid  down  in  the  canons.  "  We  acknowledge," 
they  say,  "the  pre-eminence  of  the  Holy  See,  and  the  supreme 
dignity  of  the  successor  of  Peter ;  but  we  also  know  that  we 
are  all  successors  of  the  Apostles ;  that  the  Pope  is  our  superior 
by  Divine  right,  but  that  he  is  not  the  only  bishop.  We  know 
that  we  ourselves,  equally  with  him,  have  received  our  au- 
thority from  Jesus  Christ  himself;  and  that  the  Holy  Ghost  has 
appointed  each  one  of  us  to  govern  in  the  quality  of  His  vicars 
(as  all  antiquity  bears  witness)  that  portion  of  the  Church 
which  is  confided  to  our  care."  *  This  circular  was  suppressed 
by  the  Council  of  State  on  the  4th  of  July,  1668 ;  and  the 
bishops  were  commanded  to  address  themselves  to  the  king 
upon  all  matters  concerning  the  interests  of  the  clergy,  with- 
out putting  forth  public  statements  upon  such  subjects  except 
with  his  previous  permission. 

Notwithstanding  these  discouraging  circumstances,  the  nego- 
ciation  for  restoring  peace  proceeded;  but  it  was  conducted 
with  extreme  caution,  and  was  kept  a  profound  secret  from 
Father  Annat  and  the  TJltramontanes,  who  would  have  strained 
every  nerve,  as  on  the  former  occasion,  to  ruin  the  scheme. 
For  the  same  reason  it  was  carefully  concealed  from  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Paris ;  for,  as  a  member  of  the  Council  of  Conscience, 
he  could  hardly  have  avoided  mentioning  it  to  his  Jesuit  col- 


*  Sec  Varet,  Relation  de  la  Paix  de  Clement  IX.,  torn.  ii.  p.  19. 


470  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XIV. 

leagues.  The  Nuncio  Bargellini,  Archbishop  of  Thebes,  had 
lately  arrived  in  France,  furnished  with  ample  powers  on  the 
part  of  the  Pope ;  and  in  his  presence  anxious  consultations 
were  now  held  as  to  the  best  mode  of  arranging  the  terms  of 
reconciliation.  Besides  De  Gondrin  and  Vialart,  the  Bishop 
of  Laon,  afterwards  so  well  known  as  Cardinal  d'Estrees,  rendered 
important  service,  at  this  critical  moment,  to  the  cause  of 
peace. 

It  was  no  easy  task  to  mediate  between  two  parties,  neither 
of  whom  was  willing  to  make  the  very  slightest  concession  or 
sacrifice.  The  Pope,  it  was  evident,  could  not  recede  from  his 
demand  of  an  absolute  and  unreserved  acceptance  of  the  Formu- 
lary; the  bishops,  on  the  other  hand,  positively  declined  to 
subscribe  it  without  making  a  clear  distinction  between  the 
droit  and  the  fait.  Various  plans  were  discussed  and  aban- 
doned. At  last  it  was  proposed  that  the  bishops,  without 
being  required  to  retract  their  mandements,  should  sign  the 
Formulary  afresh,  as  if  they  had  taken  no  steps  in  the  matter 
before,  and  should  cause  it  to  be  signed  by  their  clergy ;  that 
any  explanatory  remarks  which  they  might  wish  to  make 
should  be  made  by  a  proces-verbal  at  their  diocesan  Synods, 
such  written  statements  not  to  be  published,  but  to  be  de- 
posited in  the  registry  of  each  diocese ;  and  that  they  should 
afterwards  join  in  a  letter  to  the  Pope,  informing  him  of  this 
new  act  of  dutiful  submission  to  his  authority.  This  expedient 
was  approved  by  the  Nuncio,  accepted,  on  his  recommendation, 
by  the  Pope,  and  ultimately  adopted. 

The  composition  of  the  proposed  letter  to  the  Pope  was 
entrusted  to  Arnauld  and  Nicole,  who  acquitted  themselves 
with  all  their  usual  ability.  The  draft  was  submitted  to  the 
Ministers,  and  by  them  to  the  king ;  the  Nuncio  made  some 
slight  alterations,  and  it  was  then  signed  by  himself  and  the 
Archbishop  of  Sens;  upon  which  this  memorable  transaction 
was  deemed  complete.  It  remained,  however,  to  obtain  the 
personal  adhesion  of  the  four  prelates;  and  here,  much  to 
the  alarm  of  the  negociators,  the  Bishop  of  Alet  proved  for 
some  time  intractable.  Courier  after  courier  was  despatched  to 
urge  him  to  compliance,  but  in  vain.  At  last  he  yielded  to  the 
importunate  entreaties  of  the  Bishop  of  Comminges,  Antoine 
Arnauld,  and  other  friends,  and  appended  his  signature  on  the 


AD.  1668.    LETTER  OF  THE  TOUR  BISHOPS  TO  CLEMENT  IX.    471 

10th  of  September,  1668.  The  other  prelates  assented  without 
difficulty. 

The  bishops  represented,  in  this  famous  document,*  that, 
"  having  learned  that  with  regard  to  the  manner  of  executing 
the  constitution  of  Pope  Alexander  and  subscribing  the  Formu- 
lary, many  French  bishops  had  followed  a  line  of  conduct 
differing  from  their  own  and  more  agreeable  to  his  Holiness, 
they  had  deemed  it  right  to  imitate  them  in  this  particular, 
having  nothing  more  nearly  at  heart  than  to  contribute  to 
the  peace  and  union  of  the  Church ;  that  they  had,  therefore, 
assembled  their  diocesan  Synods,  and  prescribed  a  fresh  sub- 
scription, in  which  they  themselves  had  joined ;  that  they  had 
given  the  same  instructions  to  their  clergy  that  had  been  given 
by  the  bishops  their  colleagues;  that  they  had  enforced  the 
same  deference  to  the  constitutions  of  the  Holy  See  that  had 
been  required  in  other  dioceses ;  and  that,  as  they  had  always 
been  united  to  their  episcopal  brethren  by  an  identity  of  doc- 
trinal sentiment,  so  they  were  now  in  accordance  with  them  in 
point  of  discipline  and  mode  of  proceeding."  They  concluded 
with  an  elaborate  protestation  of  unqualified  submission  to 
the  chair  of  St.  Peter  and  of  respect  for  the  Holy  Father 
personally. 

In  the  proces-verbal  made  by  the  Bishop  of  Alet  at  his 
diocesan  Synod,  held  on  the  15th  of  September,  he  explained 
to  the  clergy  that  their  subscription  of  the  Formulary  implied 
"  a  sincere,  entire,  and  unreserved  condemnation  of  all  the  false 
doctrine  which  the  Popes  and  the  Church  had  condemned  in 
the  Five  Propositions,  so  as  to  profess  no  other  doctrine  on  that 
head  than  that  of  the  Catholic  and  Koman  Church."  More- 
over, that  the  doctrine  of  St.  Augustine  and  St.  Thomas  on 
grace  "efficacious  by  itself"  is  not  to  be  held  comprised  in  the 


*  The  letter  runs  thus  in  the   ori-  guit  eorum  institutum  imitari;  quam- 

ginal : — ''  Cum  in  exequenda  decessoris  obrem  congregata,  sicut  illi,  Disecesansi, 

vestri  de  subscribenda  fidei  Formulfl  Synodo,   et   imperata    nova    subscrip- 

Constitutione,  ruulti  Gallicani  episcopi,  j  tione,   nos   insubscripsimus ;   quse  suis 

nobiscum  licet  sensibus  conjunctissimi,  ipsi  clericis  tradiderunt,  nostris  tradidi- 

eam  discipline   formam   amplexi    sint  j  mus;    quod  in  Apostolicas    Constitu- 

(|ii!ini    Sanctitati    vestrse    acceptiorem  I  tiones  injunxerunt,  injunximus;    pror- 

fuisse  intelleximus,   nos,  quibus  nihil  susque  nos  ipsis,  ut  pridem  doetrina,  ita 

eat  antiquius  quam  paci  unitatique  con-  nunc    in    hac    disciplines    form&    con- 

sulere,  et  nostram  erga  Sedern  Apos-  junximus." 
tolicam  reverentiam  testificari,  uon  pin- 


472 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  XIV. 


false  doctrine  so  condemned,  according  to  the  repeated  declara- 
tions of  the  Popes  themselves ;  and  lastly,  that  with  regard  to 
the  fact  enunciated  in  the  Formulary,  their  subscription  sig- 
nified only  submission  of  respect  and  discipline,  which  consisted 
in  not  opposing  the  Pontifical  decision,  and  preserving  silence ; 
since  the  Church,  being  not  infallible  as  to  facts  of  this  descrip- 
tion, did  not  pretend,  by  her  own  sole  Authority,  to  compel  her 
children  to  believe  them.  The  other  bishops  expressed  them- 
selves in  almost  the  same  terms.* 

Clement  IX.,  by  a  brief  addressed  to  the  king  on  the  8th 
of  October,  declared  himself  satisfied  with  the  conduct  of  the 
four  prelates,  on  the  understanding  that  they  had  submitted 
"by  a  sincere  acceptance  of  the  Formulary."  Thereupon  an 
arret  of  the  Council  of  State  (October  23,  1668),  after  reciting 
such  submission,  announced  that,  since  the  Pope  was  satisfied, 
the  king  was  satisfied  also ;  ordered  that  the  Papal  constitu- 
tions should  continue  to  be  inviolably  observed  throughout  the 
kingdom;  and  that  all  proceedings  in  contravention  of  them 
should  be  considered  null  and  void.  The  king,  moreover,  for- 
bade all  persons  henceforth  to  attack  or  provoke  one  another 
by  using  the  opprobrious  terms  of  "  heretic,"  "  Jansenist," 
"  semi-Pelagian,"  or  other  party  appellations ;  nor  was  any- 
thing to  be  published  concerning  the  contested  questions,  or 
injurious  to  the  reputation  of  those  who  had  taken  part  in 
them,  under  pain  of  exemplary  punishment. 

These  events  were  hailed  with  the  utmost  satisfaction  and 
joy  by  all  classes  except  those  whose  interest  lay  in  preventing 
the  restoration  of  peace.j  Antoine  Arnauld  emerged  forthwith 
from  his  retirement,  was  presented  to  the  Nuncio,  and  after- 
wards, by  his  nephew  Pomponne,  to  the  king  at  St.  Germain, 
where  he  met  with  a  gracious  reception.  De  Sacy,  who  had 
been  immured  for  upwards  of  two  years  in  the  Bastille,  was 


*  Gerberon,jEfi'g<.  Gen.  duJansenisme, 
torn.  iii.  p.  177  et  seqq. 

t  We  learn  from  D.  Clemer^et  (HiBt. 
Gtfn.  de  P.  E.,  torn.  vi.  p.  361)  that 
F.  Annat,  as  soon  as  the  result  of  the 
negociation  was  announced,  hastened  to 
the  kinpr,  and  strove  to  persuade  him 
that  any  such  arrangement  must  needs 
be  deeply  prejudicial  both  to  religion 


and  the  State.  "As  to  the  welfare 
of  religion,"  replied  Louis  somewhat 
coldly,  "  that  is  the  Pope's  affair ;  if  he 
is  satisfied,  you  and  I  are  bound  to  be 
so  likewise.  And  with  regard  to  the 
interests  of  the  State,  I  recommend  you 
not  to  trouble  yourself  much  on  that 
score ;  I  will  take  care  that  whatever  is 
necessary  shall  be  clone." 


A.D.  1668.  THE  "PEACE  OF  CLEMENT  IX."  473 

set  at  liberty,  introduced  at  Court,  and  became,  together  with 
Arnauld,  an  object  of  general  and  enthusiastic  admiration. 
The  famous  preacher  Desmares  reappeared  in  the  pulpit  of 
St.  Roch.  The  interdict  was  removed  from  Port  Royal,  upon  a 
petition  from  the  sisters  to  the  Archbishop,  which  contained  an 
act  of  submission  in  terms  dictated  by  the  prelate  himself. 
The  Solitaires,  having  no  further  cause  for  concealment,  re- 
paired to  their  former  haunts  in  the  valley  of  Chevreuse ;  and 
Madame  de  Longueville,  who  was  now  saluted  by  the  Jansenists 
as  the  "  mother  of  the  Church,"  established  herself  in  a  mansion 
which  she  had  built  close  to  the  monastery.  The  King  nomi- 
nated as  abbess  of  Port  Royal  a  nun  called  Doroth£e  Perdreau, 
one  of  the  few  who  had  signed  the  Formulary  when  it  was 
resisted  by  the  rest  of  the  community  in  1664. 

Whether  Clement  IX.  really  believed  that  the  Four  Bishops 
had  accepted  the  Formulary  without  restriction  or  distinction, 
is  a  question  which  has  been  warmly  debated.  It  appears 
that  he  was  not  informed  beforehand  of  the  arrangement  by 
which  they  were  to  make  a  written  explanation  of  their  views 
in  the  diocesan  Synods;  indeed,  if  this  condition  had  not  been 
concealed  from  him,  it  is  difficult  to  understand  how  the  nego- 
tiation could  have  proved  successful.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
bishops  stated  in  their  letter  that  they  had  adopted  the  same 
line  of  action  with  their  nineteen  brethren  who  had  addressed 
the  Pope  in  their  favour;  and  it  was  perfectly  well  known 
that  these  prelates  recognised  a  distinction  between  the  fait 
and  the  droit,  though  no  mention  of  that  circumstance  had 
been  made  in  their  public  mandements.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  Clement  regarded  the  whole  affair  more  or  less  in  the  light 
of  a  compromise ;  and  that,  accordingly,  he  thought  it  right 
to  accept  the  act  of  submission  in  the  sense  in  which  he  had 
demanded  it,  without  inquiring  into  further  details.  No  sooner, 
however,  was  the  event  made  public,  than  it  began  to  be 
rumoured  that  the  bishops  had  acted  insincerely;  that  they 
had  pretended  to  give  satisfaction  to  the  Nuncio  and  the  Pope 
by  unqualified  submission,  whereas  they  had  clandestinely 
renewed  that  very  distinction  between  the  droit  and  the  fait 
which  had  been  so  often  and  so  positively  condemned.*  It 

*  Ellics-Dupin,  11.  E.  du  X  VII.  slide,  torn.  i.  liv.  iii. 

VOL.  i.  2  r 


474 


THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH. 


CHAP.  XIV. 


was  not  long  before  these  complaints  reached  the  ears  of  the 
Pope ;  and  he  at  once  instructed  the  Nuncio  to  investigate 
the  matter  thoroughly,  and  to  exact  from  the  bishops  a  cer- 
tificate in  due  form  that  they  had  subscribed  the  Formulary, 
and  caused  it  to  be  signed,  in  all  sincerity,  in  conformity  with 
the  constitutions  of  his  predecessors.*  To  this  they  consented 
readily,  nor  was  there  anything  to  prevent  their  doing  so.  The 
very  means  by  which  the  arrangement  had  been  arrived  at  was 
the  substitution  of  the  phrase  "  a  sincere  acceptance  "  for  that 
of  "  an  acceptance  pure  and  simple."  Doubtless  they  had  signed 
in  sincerity,  for  the  explanation  appended  to  their  act  of  sub- 
scription had  been  made  for  the  sole  purpose  of  enabling  them 
to  sign  with  a  safe  conscience ;  but  it  is  no  less  certain  that 
they  retracted  nothing  whatever  of  their  previously  expressed 
opinions ;  and  that,  whether  with  or  without  the  Pope's  conni- 
vance, they  availed  themselves  of  a  saving  clause  which  effectu- 
ally sheltered  their  long-cherished  conviction  with  regard  to 
the  "  fact  of  Jansenius." 

By  way  of  a  further  guarantee  to  his  Holiness,  the  Bishop 
of  Chalons  executed  a  formal  document,  declaring  that  the 
four  bishops  and  their  clergy  had  acted  with  perfect  good  faith ; 
had  condemned,  without  exception  or  reserve,  all  the  errors 
which  the  Church  had  censured  in  the  five  Propositions;  and 
with  regard  to  the  fact,  had  rendered  to  the  Holy  See  all  due 
deference  and  submission,  according  to  the  doctrine  on  that 
point  taught  by  the  greatest  theologians  of  all  ages.j  This 
was  likewise  attested  by  the  signature  of  Antoine  Arnauld,  as 
representative  of  the  Port  Koyalist  divines. 

Having  received  this  authentic  declaration,  Clement  con- 
ceived that  no  further  ground  existed  for  questioning  the 
uprightness  of  the  bishops  in  the  transaction;  he,  therefore, 
addressed  a  brief  to  them,  dated  January  19th,  1669,  which 
is  regarded  as  the  official  ratification  of  the  "  Peace  of  Cle- 
ment IX."  His  Holiness  alluded  to  certain  current  reports 
connected  with  their  act  of  submission,  which  had  made  it 
necessary  to  proceed  with  caution  in  the  affair ;  and  observed 


*  (Euvres   d'Arnauld,   torn.   xxv.   p. 
125, 

t  B.   Racine,   Hist.  Ecclen.     Varet, 


Relation  de  ce  qui  s'est  passe,  &c. 
D'Avrignv,  Mem.  Chronol.,  torn.  iii. 
p.  78. 


A.D.  1G69.  THE  "  PEACE  OF  CLEMENT  IX."  475 

that  he  could  never  have  permitted  any  sort  of  restriction  or 
exception  in  the  signature,  being  strongly  attached  to  the  con- 
stitutions of  his  predecessors.  But,  after  the  renewed  testi- 
monies which  had  reached  him  of  their  perfect  sincerity  and 
obedience,  he  could  no  longer  withhold  the  assurance  of  his 
paternal  satisfaction ;  he  therefore  transmitted  to  them,  with 
much  affection,  the  apostolical  benediction.* 

In  order  to  commemorate  the  happy  termination  of  this 
lengthened  conflict,  a  medal  was  struck  at  the  mint,  bearing  on 
one  side  the  head  of  Louis  XIV.,  and  on  the  other  a  book 
lying  open  on  an  altar,  across  which  were  the  keys  of  St.  Peter 
and  the  royal  sceptre  saltierwise ;  above  was  the  holy  Dove 
surrounded  by  rays,  with  the  legend  "  Gratia  et  pax  a  Deo ;" 
at  the  foot  of  the  altar  ran  the  motto,  "Ob  restitutam  Ecclesiae 
concordiam." 

It  is  hardly  to  be  wondered  at,  but  not  the  less  to  be  re- 
gretted, that  the  Jansenists  betrayed,  in  their  hour  of  triumph, 
feelings  of  boastful  exultation  which  might  have  been  far  more 
wisely  suppressed.  With  singular  bad  taste  they  proclaimed  in 
the  most  public  manner  that  the  conduct  of  Clement  IX.  was 
inconsistent  with,  and  condemnatory  of,  that  of  his  prede- 
cessors ;  that  he  had  sanctioned  a  mode  of  subscription  which 
they  had  denounced  as  fraudulent  and  hypocritical ;  and  that 
the  same  persons  who  for  years  past  had  been  branded  as 
heretics  for  refusing  to  believe  that  the  five  Propositions  were 
taught  by  Jansenius,  were  now  acknowledged  by  the  Pope,  the 
bishops,  and  the  King  of  France  to  be  orthodox  Catholics, 
although  they  maintained  precisely  the  same  sentiments  as 
before,  and  had  never  made  any  statements  or  admissions 
which  they  had  not  been  perfectly  ready  to  make  at  any  period 
of  the  controversy.  Such  was  the  main  purport  of  a  '  History  of 
the  Pacification  of  the  Church,'  put  forth  under  the  auspices 
of  the  party  by  an  ecclesiastic  named  Varet,  vicar-general  to 
the  Archbishop  of  Sens ;  of  another  work,  with  the  same  title, 
by  Father  Quesnel,  of  the  Oratory ;  and  of  the  '  Phautome  du 
Jansenisme,'  a  treatise  from  the  pen  of  Arnauld  himself. 

Clement  IX.  survived   scarcely  a  year  the   celebrated  act 


*  D'Argciitrc,  Collect.  Judic.,  torn.  iii.  p.  337. 


476  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.  CHAP.  XIV. 

of  amnesty  which  bears  his  name.  He  died  December  9th, 
16(59,  and  was  succeeded,  after  a  few  months,  by  Cardinal 
Altieri,  who  took  the  title  of  Clement  X.  The  following  year 
witnessed  a  change  in  the  government  of  the  diocese  of  Paris : 
Archbishop  Perefixe  expired  on  the  31st  of  December,  1670, 
and  was  replaced  by  Frai^ois  de  Harlai,  Archbishop  of  Kouen, 
a  man  of  considerable  learning  and  administrative  talent,  but  of 
harsh  temperament  and  indifferent  morals. 


END   OF    VOL.    I. 


LONDON:     riUJSTIO)  BY   WILLIAM  CLOWES   AKD  tfOXS,  BtAUFOffi)  bTBI-.Vl1, 

ASP  CIIAKIM;  cittws. 


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